9 October 2024

2 minute read

By: Laurence Williams

Animal AgTech company, TARGAN, Inc., will make the European debut of WingScan™ at EuroTier 2024. The US-based manufacturer’s automated chick feather sex identification system leverages artificial intelligence (AI)-powered advanced imaging technology to identify and sort male and female day-old chicks based on their feathers.

Ramin Karimpour, Founder and CEO at TARGAN, said: “With global meat consumption expected to double by 2050, the industry needs to rapidly evolve to feed our growing population. In Europe, poultry is one of the most widely produced and consumed animal-based protein sources, but the sector faces an array of challenges to meet demand, including workforce complexities, tightening welfare standards and higher consumer expectations — all areas that can be addressed with our systems.”

The WingScan™ system offers a throughput of up to 100,000 chicks per hour, depending on the configuration, with up to 98% accuracy. Automated chick sexing improves efficiency and performance, leading to downstream benefits at the farm and plant. By implementing gender-specific rearing strategies, producers can improve flock uniformity, which enhances plant operations.

By overcoming the need for large teams of skilled manual chick sexers, WingScan™ allows hatcheries to address labour challenges. Hatcheries that are able to boost productivity, have a greater potential to achieve consistent, high-precision results and improved ROI across the entire value chain.

TARGAN’s Commercial Lead for Europe, Vincent Fevrier, added: “We have been eagerly working towards this launch because we can see the great opportunity for the European poultry sector to refine its operations by integrating automated and AI-powered systems like ours. Production challenges in Europe are echoed throughout the wider global industry, and we want our solutions to play a pivotal role in addressing these issues. Our team is excited to attend EuroTier, forge new relationships and reconnect with existing partners in November.”

TARGAN will showcase its innovative WingScan™ system for increased hatchery, farm, and plant performance, in Hall 17, Stand B08, where the team will be on hand to discuss their systems, technology and mission to support a healthier, more sustainable food supply by engineering precise, effective and safe technologies.