26 February 2025

4 minute read

By: Sarah Mikesell

North America

Vincent Fevrier, the Commercial Lead for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Targan, was recently interviewed by The Poultry Site’s Sarah Mikesell in the Targan booth at International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about the new commercial product that Targan has launched called WingScan.

WingScan is an automatic sexing machine working on the feather patterns. We are taking pictures of the chicks to differentiate male and female. The machine is placed in the chick processing room just after the chicks take off. before the chick counter. It's really working from the pictures that we are taking of the chicks.

How do the feather patterns differ between male and female chicks?

Basically the females have a slow feather pattern. They are vastly different from the males, and we can see it during a brief period at hatch. The machine by taking pictures will differentiate it.

How accurate is WingScan?

Depending on the flock, we can provide up to 99% accuracy. On average, we are at 97%, because some flocks, like young flocks, the chicks would be smaller, so it's more difficult to see. On the old flocks, chicks are still wet, so we have less accuracy, but we still reach an exceptionally good accuracy at up to 97%.

Wingscan was launched into the EU market at EuroTier. How has it been received in that market?

At EuroTier, a lot of the poultry producers from Europe, Middle East, and Africa had a lot of interest in the technology. Some are already sexing, in areas such as Italy, Spain, and France. They were extremely interested to see how they can implement the system.

For other countries who are not yet sexing today, they are interested because they know it's going to be a breakthrough in the market, and they want to be ready to install it.

What the key benefit of WingScan?

At the end of the day, producers want to get as large of a yield as they can per bird. By sexing them, they will get benefits from the males by growing them. With females, they achieve more homogeneity because there can be more homogeneous flux with the female.

Can you share the latest on where your systems have been placed?

Today, we have more than half a billion birds that are being sexed worldwide, and this gives us a huge experience. The machine is based on artificial intelligence. The machine learning increases as more chicks go through it. So the more it sees, the better it gets. So having that many chicks, we have been through a lot of improvements.

In Europe, we have already secured contracts with major producers in Italy, Spain and France. In Poland, we are going to install the first machine before summer.

Have you observed any nuances specific to what customers value in Europe compared to North America?

The benefits of sexing birds are the same everywhere. It provides better homogeneity, improved feed conversion ratios (FCR) and allows a higher yield from the chicks at slaughter plants.

In Europe, the countries are quite different from each other. Some are more integrated, and some have hatcheries or are selling day old chicks. So, the market is different for them. In general, the purpose is to get as much yield as we can from each bird.

Why separate males and females?

There is a significant difference between countries. In the US, they are already very mature with growing heavy birds. They will go up to 4 kilos with the males, and females will stop at 2 to 2.5 kilos.

In Europe, they are not used to separating the males and females on the farms. All the birds are going to the same weight, which is 2.5 kilos. The benefit of sexing is obvious in the US, and it's getting better in Europe.

I know in France, for instance, where there are more heavy birds being produced. In that case, you really need to separate the males and the females to focus on growth, so you can get the males to a heavier weight.

What are some of the key takeaways from this experience with WingScan?

We are coming with an innovative technology. Before, sexing was not done mainly because of restrictions in the resources. You had to do it manually, and in most cases, you would need 20 to 30 people to do it. It's not easy to find people to work in the hatchery.

By bringing this new technology, we are opening new markets. We are giving access to heavy birds in the market by producing the males differently. The benefits will be getting more yield from each chicken. And today, we are looking for every penny in the market.