Poultry farming today faces a complex, high-stakes landscape. Biosecurity threats are on the rise, from the resurgence of virulent Newcastle Disease to wave after wave of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). Producers are also under pressure to reduce antibiotics, meet welfare standards, and digitize operations—all while feeding a growing global population with shrinking resources.
One of the critical puzzle pieces in this ecosystem is vaccination—the first line of defense against disease and performance loss.
But how do you ensure that millions of birds receive precise, effective, and stress-free vaccinations in a single day? How do you remove human error, increase animal welfare, and lower production costs—all at once?
TARGAN, a US-based biotechnology company, believes the answer lies in a convergence of AI, robotics, and bioscience. We sat down with Liz Turpin, Vice President of BioProcess at TARGAN, to discuss the current bottlenecks in poultry vaccination and how her team is building what might become the world's most advanced vaccination system for poultry.
🧠 1: What Are the Real-World Challenges in Poultry Vaccination?
Liz Turpin:
“Today’s poultry farms operate at incredible scale. Hatcheries might handle hundreds of thousands to millions of chicks per week. That’s not just a logistical challenge—it’s a biological one. Vaccination is time-sensitive, bird-specific, and closely tied to early immune system development. But manual vaccination is still prevalent in many regions.”
She continues,
“Manual methods come with obvious downsides—inconsistency, variable dosage, chick stress, and labor dependency. Some workers might miss chicks or improperly deliver vaccines, leading to uneven immunity across flocks. In regions facing labor shortages, relying on people to vaccinate at scale is increasingly unsustainable.”
Beyond labor and logistics, there's the issue of disease mutations. New variants of HPAI and infectious bronchitis (IBV) are evolving rapidly. Effective control demands precise strain matching and individualized delivery, which manual methods simply can't offer.
🤖 2: How Is TARGAN Transforming This with Automation?
Liz beams with excitement here.
“At TARGAN, we’re reimagining the entire vaccination process through machine vision, robotics, and real-time data analytics. Our systems are designed to identify and vaccinate each chick within milliseconds. This isn’t just automation for speed—it’s automation with intelligence.”
She explains that their platform:
- Uses high-speed 3D imaging to detect a chick’s position and orientation
- Calculates the ideal injection point in real-time
- Delivers the correct dose within one-tenth of a second
- Logs each chick’s vaccination event digitally for traceability
“Our flagship machine vaccinates up to 100,000 chicks per hour, with 95%+ accuracy,” Liz states. “That’s 2.4 million per day. And it operates with less human oversight, significantly reducing labor costs and operator error.”
But perhaps the most compelling feature is data integration. “Each chick’s vaccination can be recorded,” she adds. “This enables traceability, batch-level analysis, and better decision-making across the supply chain.”
🐣 3: What Is In Ovo Vaccination, and Why Does It Matter?
Liz leans in:
“In ovo vaccination is a game-changer. It allows us to vaccinate chicks inside the egg before they hatch—usually on day 18 of incubation. This is highly efficient, reduces stress, and improves immunity.”
Why is it superior?
Early Immune Priming: The embryo starts producing immune responses before hatch, which means better protection once the chick is exposed to pathogens.
Reduced Handling Stress: Post-hatch vaccination involves handling delicate chicks—leading to stress, injuries, or missed doses. In ovo eliminates this.
Perfect Hatchery Integration: It fits seamlessly into existing workflows, requiring no extra labor or handling steps.
TARGAN’s in ovo systems go a step further—they adapt to different egg sizes, automate positioning, and ensure minimal contamination risk.
“Most importantly,” Liz adds, “we can now deliver multiple vaccines simultaneously in ovo, including complex biologics like recombinant vaccines and adjuvants.”
🌱 4: Is This Technology Scalable Globally?
Liz acknowledges the challenges:
“Every region is different. In North America and Europe, we have large integrators with modern hatcheries—these are easier to upgrade with our tech. In Asia, Latin America, and Africa, we’re working on scalable, mobile versions that can fit into smaller hatchery setups.”
TARGAN is developing plug-and-play modules that allow for gradual adoption, especially for medium-sized producers. These systems can integrate with existing chick counting, sorting, and handling equipment, which reduces upfront investment.
“We’re also offering training and support through digital platforms. Once a hatchery adopts our system, they get real-time dashboards, remote diagnostics, and on-demand updates.”
💚 5: What About Sustainability and Welfare?
Vaccination is often overlooked in sustainability discussions, but Liz is clear:
“Precision vaccination means fewer disease outbreaks. That reduces the need for antibiotics, improves feed conversion ratios, and cuts down on mortality-related carbon emissions.”
She continues:
“Our automated systems eliminate vaccine overuse and wastage. Every drop counts. That reduces the environmental footprint of biologic production.”
From a welfare perspective, automated in ovo and post-hatch systems reduce chick stress, minimize injuries from handling, and align with ethical farming standards increasingly demanded by global buyers.
🔭 6: What’s Coming Next?
Liz outlines TARGAN’s roadmap:
“In the next 3–5 years, we envision fully digitized hatcheries where vaccination, sexing, sorting, and health monitoring are unified into a single workflow.”
Future upgrades will include:
- Custom vaccine programs per flock lineage
- Integrated disease surveillance with AI alerts
- Environmental sensors tied to vaccine efficacy modeling
- Blockchain traceability from hatch to harvest
“In the long term, we’ll see individualized poultry care,” she says. “Each bird will have a digital ID from hatch, and interventions—nutrition, health, environment—will be tuned for maximum productivity and welfare.”
🧠 Final Thoughts: Vaccination Is Now a Data-Driven Science
Liz leaves us with this:
“Poultry health is no longer just about managing outbreaks. It’s about preventing them with surgical precision. That means data, automation, and agility.
If we can vaccinate millions of birds faster, smarter, and gentler, the entire food system becomes safer, more ethical, and more profitable.”
TARGAN is leading this charge—not by replacing farmers or vets, but by empowering them with tools that are smarter, faster, and globally scalable.