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New machine could save poultry industry millions of chicks per year
A new machine has been developed that could increase efficiency in the poultry industry. Extension specialist with the Department of Poultry Science at Texas A&M University, Dr. Craig Coufal (soo-fall), developed a machine that sprays eggs destined to become broiler chicks with hydrogen peroxide. The eggs are then exposed to ultraviolet light to disinfect the egg without deteriorating the cuticle that naturally protects the embryo.
He says this process could solve problems that occur while the chick is in the incubator.
“We want to try to create as clean of conditions in the hatchery as possible,” said Coufal. “If you think about how bacteria, or a fungus, or any other microbe might enter the hatchery environment, it’s going to be on the eggs.”
Coufal says about 90 million chicks are lost each year because of harmful bacteria in the eggs. He feels confident that his machine can improve savings and efficiency by decreasing losses in the hatchery.
“We should hopefully increase hatchability and decrease any microbial contamination within that hatching environment and hopefully make for a better, healthier, and more chicks,” explained Coufal.
Coufal’s machine is currently in the testing process on a commercial farm, cleaning thousands of eggs each day. The chicks from those eggs will be followed and monitored to test for health and livability. He tells Brownfield he’d like to see a machine on every egg producing farm to reduce contamination in the hatchery and increase the number of healthy chicks.
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