(ANSA-AFP) - BERLIN, JAN 20 - Germany is set to be the first country to ban mass culling of male chicks in the poultry industry, the government said Wednesday after approving a draft law ending the controversial practice. The measure passed by the cabinet envisages a ban on mass chick killing from 2022 in "a significant step forward for animal welfare," Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner said in a statement. In many poultry businesses, male chicks are separated from females soon after hatching and shredded or gassed as they do not produce eggs and generate less meat. Tens of millions of males are culled in Germany every year. Animal welfare activists have long campaigned to end the practice but farmers have complained there is no practical, affordable and cruelty-free alternative. But methods to determine the sex of chicks before they hatch are available to farmers, according to the government. (ANSA-AFP).