Progress 10/01/03 to 09/30/04
Outputs
In the US, about 90 % of the ten-billion broiler chicks hatched annually are vaccinated against various diseases by placing vaccine in the egg three days before the chick hatches. While some non-viable eggs (infertiles, early deads) can be removed before inoculation with the use of conventional opacity candling, other non-viable eggs (middle deads, rots) remain and are not only inoculated but placed into the hatcher as well. The inoculation and incubation of dead, contaminated eggs can contaminate incubators and in ovo injection systems and can support the spread of disease agents to other eggs. Removing non-viable eggs prior to inoculation improves the operation of conventional incubators by increasing the number of live eggs per incubator and protecting hatchlings from exposure to the pathogens in rotten eggs. Cleaner incubators and reduction in pathogens (and, therefore, reduced clean-up time and waste disposal), as well as reducing dependency on antibiotics during
inoculation fostered interest in a system that can reliably differentiate between live and dead eggs. The living embryos in live eggs produce heat so that these eggs are warmer than non-live eggs. With the use of non-contact infrared radiation sensors or cameras, the egg temperature can be measured, recorded and analyzed. Combining information from conventional opacity candling system with egg temperature data, allows the industry to select live eggs more accurately than current manual or automatic systems used by the poultry industry. During Phase I of this SBIR grant, we were able to prove the feasibility of using non-contact egg temperature measurement for thermal candling. The purpose of the Phase II research was to eliminate problems that arose in Phase I, such as sporadic inaccurate temperature measurements and misidentification of live eggs in warm environments, and to develop a method to correctly identify upside down placed eggs. We also addressed issues that would be
important for a commercial device such as protecting the sensitive thermal equipment, increasing the speed of the Thermal Candler and the accuracy with which Day 16 and Day 18 eggs are categorized as either dead or live. Using a thermal camera and image analysis tools, we were able to address all the above listed problems while significantly increasing the accuracy of the Thermal Candler. We tested 28,800 Day 18 broiler eggs of both prime and old flocks (33 and 51 weeks), as well as 9,600 Day 16 (Day 15.5) broiler eggs of a prime flock (33 weeks) in a commercial hatchery. Flock age proved to be non-detrimental to the live/dead decision-making. The automated Thermal Candler Prototype that was built during Phase II achieved accuracies around 99.9 % for both Day 18 and Day 16 eggs, including correctly identifying upside down placed eggs.
Impacts
Reducing exposure of hatchlings to contaminants such as bacteria and mold will increase hatchability and therefore increase product yield. We expect that value trials will support results from previous `manual candling and removing non-viable egg' tests, which ended with a 1.2 % to 2.0 % hatch improvement for older flocks (> 54 weeks). The United States poultry industry would receive a direct value resulting from this hatch improvement in the order of 0.2 to 0.4 cents per chick. Cleaner setters, therefore reduced clean-up time, and reduced wet waste disposal is another major benefit.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/03 to 08/31/04
Outputs
Target Audience:nullChanges/Problems:nullWhat opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In the US, about 90 % of the ten-billion broiler chicks hatched annually are vaccinated against various diseases by placing vaccine in the egg three days before the chick hatches. While some non-viable eggs (infertiles, early deads) can be removed before inoculation with the use of conventional opacity candling, other non-viable eggs (middle deads, rots) remain and are not only inoculated but placed into the hatcher as well. The inoculation and incubation of dead, contaminated eggs can contaminate incubators and in ovo injection systems and can support the spread of disease agents to other eggs. Removing non-viable eggs prior to inoculation improves the operation of conventional incubators by increasing the number of live eggs per incubator and protecting hatchlings from exposure to the pathogens in rotten eggs. Cleaner incubators and reduction in pathogens (and, therefore, reduced clean-up time and waste disposal), as well as reducing dependency on antibiotics during
inoculation fostered interest in a system that can reliably differentiate between live and dead eggs. The living embryos in live eggs produce heat so that these eggs are warmer than non-live eggs. With the use of non-contact infrared radiation sensors or cameras, the egg temperature can be measured, recorded and analyzed. Combining information from conventional opacity candling system with egg temperature data, allows the industry to select live eggs more accurately than current manual or automatic systems used by the poultry industry. During Phase I of this SBIR grant, we were able to prove the feasibility of using non-contact egg temperature measurement for thermal candling. The purpose of the Phase II research was to eliminate problems that arose in Phase I, such as sporadic inaccurate temperature measurements and misidentification of live eggs in warm environments, and to develop a method to correctly identify upside down placed eggs. We also addressed issues that would be
important for a commercial device such as protecting the sensitive thermal equipment, increasing the speed of the Thermal Candler and the accuracy with which Day 16 and Day 18 eggs are categorized as either dead or live. Using a thermal camera and image analysis tools, we were able to address all the above listed problems while significantly increasing the accuracy of the Thermal Candler. We tested 28,800 Day 18 broiler eggs of both prime and old flocks (33 and 51 weeks), as well as 9,600 Day 16 (Day 15.5) broiler eggs of a prime flock (33 weeks) in a commercial hatchery. Flock age proved to be non-detrimental to the live/dead decision-making. The automated Thermal Candler Prototype that was built during Phase II achieved accuracies around 99.9 % for both Day 18 and Day 16 eggs, including correctly identifying upside down placed eggs.How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?nullWhat do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?null
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Reducing exposure of hatchlings to contaminants such as bacteria and mold will increase hatchability and therefore increase product yield. We expect that value trials will support results from previous `manual candling and removing non-viable egg tests, which ended with a 1.2 % to 2.0 % hatch improvement for older flocks (> 54 weeks). The United States poultry industry would receive a direct value resulting from this hatch improvement in the order of 0.2 to 0.4 cents per chick. Cleaner setters, therefore reduced clean-up time, and reduced wet waste disposal is another major benefit.
Publications
- Citation:
No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/00 to 09/30/01
Outputs
A "Thermal Marker" that could identify eggs at a rate of 22,000 eggs/hour was completed in July 2001. This research concluded with a reliability of 99.31 % correctly identified live eggs and 98.97 % correctly identified non-viable eggs. The causes of the misclassifications were unknown but hypothesized to be due to a variety of temperature measurement errors related to spot size, egg position and alignment. With those results we demonstrated the feasibility of the concept although a successful commercial machine must not discard so many live eggs. Since thermal imaging offers detailed pictures of the eggs it is a great opportunity to develop solutions to the technical challenges that arose from Phase I. We have used a thermal camera to collect data in numerous experiments and analysis of that database is providing us insight into the 1% of the eggs that are misclassified. Our candling includes the recording thermal and opacity data for each egg, as well as manual
candling results for cross-referencing. We have found that there is still an occurrence of low temperature eggs that have been manually identified as live. Analysis of the thermal images shows these eggs are clearly cooler than surrounding live eggs and not cooler due to artifacts such as feathers on eggs or displaced air cells. We have followed colder live eggs through to hatch and found that of 29 "cool live" eggs in a batch of 2,700 candled eggs that only 11 hatched as healthy chicks. In response to our discoveries of "cool live" eggs, our current experiments include real time image processing to improve our sampling accuracy and make experimental results quickly available to match with eggs. Low temperature areas such as the ones resulting from aircells of upside down eggs or from feathers on the egg shell are therefore excluded in the averaging of each egg temperature. Alignment problems should also be eliminated since the software will focus on high intensity areas rather than
on areas that are tied to certain coordinates. We are using our database of thermal images to develop the algorithms and older data will first be cross-checked to assure proper functioning of the software.
Impacts
The ability to detect and remove dead and rotten eggs from hatcheries will bring multiple benefits including increased hatch rates from pathogen reduction in incubators and the egg innoculation process, improved airflow in incubators, and better hatch prediction.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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