This was published in a recent publication in Agri&Food. It has been translated into English to save you going to google translate.

The strengthening of a healthy chick starts with the quality of egg. With innovations in this regard has been discussed with Bas Smaal of Viscon Hatchery Automation.

1.       What efficiencies can be achieved with further automating a hatchery

While the traditional form of automation efficiencies are still thought about, we think about the future and benefits that our automation efficiencies can deliver to the customer and for the industry. It is ultimately our goal to help deliver a stronger and healthier chick to the industry from a hatchery that performs under cleaner and more bio secure means. Being efficient to us is seen in a variety of contexts, some of which include the layout and design of a hatchery, the incorporation of automation that works smarter and not harder while being easy to use and maintain, the ability of today’s automation processes being able to prepare the hatchery for tomorrows operations, to tackling the social trends of todays end customer. Our Vinovo select line uses highly intelligent and innovative means to process, vaccinate and transfer only the viable eggs (eggs with an embryo) while those eggs that are not viable and house harmful bacteria are left untouched to be processed in another room. In the physical sense, this is an example of how efficiencies in automation and layout are carried out. How this affects the hatchery environment is that because non-viable eggs are not handled around the viable eggs, the harmful bacteria do not enter the air therefore compromising the integrity of the viable eggs. In terms of tackling the social issues, the inovo vaccination procedure performed by Vinovo ensures that chick stress is minimized and that dependence on antibiotics for disease cure is reduced. We can continue on with examples, but this can take some time.

2. What role did Viscon have with the Hatch Care project (HatchCare Creates)?

One of the latest social trends impacting the hatchery industry has been the pressure to improve chick handling within the hatchery and outside thereof. As most people within the industry know, HatchTech has shaken the industry with their whole Hatch Care systems emphasizing early feeding and minimizing chick stress. However, it takes two to tango, and by this we mean that while...