Hatchery and

incubation
trends
Tarsicio Villalobos
Technical Services
Global BioDevices & Automation
Incubation system type
Incubation system
Hatchability

https://www.jamesway.com/assets/Uploads/Whitepaper-on-Single-Stage-Incubation2.pdf? January. 2015

Chicken performance

https://en.engormix.com/poultry-industry/articles/incubation-single-multi-stage-systems-t34734.htm. September, 2010

Incubation system

The result of being able to provide specific set

points the single stage incubation system can
provide the embryo and chick:

1. Improved nutrient utilization

2. Improved organ system maturation at hatch
3. Improved hatchling performance in the field.
Embryo response incubation
Embryo response incubation

• Traditional incubation process is based mainly on

experience and craftsmanship of the hatchery manager
and the manually adjusting of the machines settings as
function of the process time, flock age, fertility, etc is
time consuming process that become almost
impossible on today’s modern hatcheries.

• Some modern and future hatcheries will be fully

equipped with sensors that will capture all the
important embryo development parameters and
feedback the incubator in order to adjust the settings
and optimize hatchability. The hatchery of the future
will constant “listen” the embryo and properly
response.
Egg shell temperature

Petersime, OvoScan

Jamesway Pilot
Egg shell temperature

Day 16 – 21 Body weight ECR (2,000g)

99 F 2,214 g 1.82
101 F 2,263 g 1.75
103 F 2,166 g 1.80

• 5 days of wrong temperature

• 100 gram more feed/bird

Hulet, et al. 2007

 Air Temperature

Emka Incubators, copper cooling spirals

Air Temperature

Pas Reform, Vortex™-based airflow

Fan blade designed to generate as many vortices as possible to

effectively exchange energy, CO2/O2 and moisture in the incubator .
Carbon dioxide (CO2)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kuhNG96ojCQ
 Humidity

Petersime, Dynamic Weight Loss System

Hatching stimulation

Petersime, Synchro-hatch
 Control Software

Pas Reform, Adaptive Metabolic Feedback

Software delivers precise,

adaptive control over humidity
and CO2 during the incubation
process – according to the time-
varying metabolism of a specific
batch of embryos
Control Software

t-statistics
Hatchability

e= average difference for all paired

observations

s= standard deviation of pair

differences

n= number of observations

Prediction of a
future observation
and compute
Flock Age, Egg Storage, Flock ID, Setter Type, Season machine
adjustments
Energy recovering systems
Temperature

• Hatchery producing 800,000 day-old chicks per

week in Europe climate will use 2.4 million
KWH per year.

• The developing embryos in the same hatchery

will produce 2.9 million KWH per year.

• The hatchery of the future will have some

energy harvesting technology to re-use the
embryonic heat to provide for the hatchery’s
needs.
Bouke Hamminga, World Poultry, Vol 25, No 3, 2009, Pages 28-30
Central ventilaton and heat recovery

http://www.chickmaster.com/product/cc3-climate-control-system/
 Heat recovery system

http://www.petersime.com/products/turnkey-hatcheries/minimize-your-energy-costs/
Hatchery vaccination
 Broiler vaccination trend, USA

Vaccines value by administration point

140,0 126.7

120,0 106.6
102.1

100,0

94.3 % in the hatchery

US$ Millions

81.8 71,0
77.7 78
80,0 63.9 65.9 63,1
65,2
55.2
60,0 45,4 49,7 56,9
38.7 41.1 36,4
37.8 24,8 36,6
40,0
73 % hatchery

14,5 13,1 17,6 48,5

15,0 36,3
31,3
20,0 13,0 15,4 12,1 16,6 24,1 25,6
25,2 22,2
10,3 10,2 11,4 15,4 10,7 5,4 6,7 3,1 2,7 5,6 7,2 7,1
0,0
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Field Hatchery In ovo
Rennier Associates, Inc. US Broiler-Health Market Tracker. 2001-2017
Automation on high throughput
hatcheries
Super hatcheries

• Is estimated that by 2034 more than 8 billion people will

lived in this planet, the demand for food will increase by
50% and the consumption of poultry will outstrip beef, pork
and lamb with an output climbing to 130 billion metric tons a
year.

• On the next 21 years the poultry global production will

expand from 800 million chicks per week to 1.5 billion chicks
per week.

• To keep pace with demand, production will have to scale-up

and we will see the industry shifting to massive industrial
complexes with “super hatcheries” that can process up to
1 million day-old chicks per hatching day, six days a week.

Bouke Hamminga, World Poultry, Vol 25, No 3, 2009, Pages 28-30

Ceva. International Hatchery Practice, 2017, Vol 31, No 5, July, Page 33
Process mechanization

Hatch Tray washers

Sexing and Vaccination Tables

Rack washers
Inclusion of robotic

Hatch Tray
Destacking

Hatch Tray
Restacking
In ovo feeding
In ovo feeding
In ovo feeding

• Nutritionals:
• Fructose (H)
• Sucrose (H)
• Grape seed extract (H)
• Amino acids + glucose + magnesium (DOC weight)

• Epigenetic:
• Na+, Ca+, Mg+, Ni+, Cl-

• Metabolic:
• Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I)
In ovo feeding

• Competitive exclusion
• Probiotics
• Prebiotics
In ovo feeding challenges

• Volume
• 50 µL, 100 µL, 300 µL, 600 µL

• Embryonic age
• 0 ED, 10 ED, 17 ED, 18-19 ED

• Concentration
• > 300 mOsmoles

• Bacteria load built up over time and embryo safety

• Public opinion
Gender Identification
Gender identification
 Gender identification

• Invasive:
• Estrogen concentration
• Genetic probe to link with chromosome

• Non invasive:
• Spectroscopy
• Chromosome marker

T.J. Doran et al. Sex selection in layer chickens, Animal Production Science, 9 June 2017.
Hatchery possible pathways
Hatchery: Incubation
process evolution
Remove hatching section

Incubation Hatchers
Hatching at the broiler farm
Brooding at the hatchery

Incubation Hatchers
Brooding at the hatchery

Brooding section

From day 1 to 4 of age

Final comments
Hatchery of the future

• When production volume, energy cost and investment

capital access conditions are appropriate is probable
that new hatchery projects would be with single stage
incubators.

• Embryo response incubation with different levels of

sophistication has been introduced and will continue to
evolve.

• The labor scarcity on some regions will continue push

hatchery managers to incorporate process
mechanization and automation.
Hatchery of the future

• With new vaccines and application technologies it is

very likely most of the vaccinations will continue to
move from the field to the hatchery.

• Depending on the return of investment, efficacy and

embryo safety the usage of other no-vaccine products
via in ovo will transform this technology from
vaccination to in ovo delivery system.

• There is a public opinion pressure to develop a viable

gender identification system capable to segregate the
animals at early embryonic development stages.
Thank you!