Automated System for Detection and Removal of Non-viable Poultry Eggs

There is a need in the poultry industry for an automated system that will reliably discriminate between live and dead eggs during incubation to allow removal of all dead and infertile eggs prior to egg inoculation and hatching. The incubation of dead, contaminated eggs can contaminate incubators and in ovo injection systems and spread disease agent to other eggs. Removing nonviable eggs improves the operation of conventional incubators by increasing the number of live eggs per incubators and protecting hatchlings from exposure to the pathogens in rotten eggs. A Thermal Candling System combines information from conventional opacity candling with egg temperature data to select live eggs both faster and more accurately than current manual or automatic systems used by the poultry industry. Commercial Thermal Candlers will be marketed as stand-alone devices and as an integral part of an in ovo vaccination