| Growing Forward 2 Success Story
New ID technology will open global markets for Ontario-based hatchery innovation
Chicken hatcheries around the world will soon have access to a unique, new, made-in-Canada technology that holds the potential to revolutionize the business.
The non-invasive scanning technology – that will identify the gender of day-old eggs before they are incubated – is set to streamline the hatchery process, create new tech-sector jobs and redirect resources previously used to raise male chicks.
Research funded by the Egg Farmers of Ontario, through the Agricultural Adaptation Council, was conducted at McGill University, to bring the concept of gender identification of unhatched eggs to full-scale commercialization. The project is in its second phase. That’s work to fine-tune the scanning system in preparation for a commercial application that would be available for sale to hatcheries in Canada and around the world.
“This is a very sophisticated technology that includes state-of-the-art visioning,” says Tim Nelson, CEO of Livestock Research Innovation Corporation. It’s the group partnering with Egg Farmers of Ontario to bring the technology to market. “There is a tremendous amount of design work that goes into creating this new system that, at full capacity, could scan and identify male and female, and fertile and non-fertile eggs at 50,000 eggs per hour.”
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