INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY AND PRACTICES TRANSFORMING INDIA’S POULTRY FARMING SECTOR
Dr.R. Uma Rani,Ph.D.,
Professor,Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University,
Veterinary University Training and Diagnostic Centre,
Madurai 625 005 Tamil Nadu, India
Corresponding author :kamleshharini@yahoo.com
Poultry industry is an important segment of agricultural industry and plays a vital role to meet out the public demand of protein rich poultry meat and eggs and also to contribute significant part in India’s economy. In our country, increase in human population, increasing protein demand, improved health awareness among the public, dietary preferences of the people, sustainable income through poultry farming, favourable government policies, and availability of advanced technologies boost the poultry industry to grow every year. The market of poultry products in India was INR 1,905.3 Billion in 2022 and it is expected to reach INR 3,477.8 Billion by 2028 with 10.18% growth rate during 2023-2028. The adoption of automation and advanced technologies in various poultry farming activities from hatchery to food table like, egg collection, hatching, vaccination, feeding, environment control, monitoring of birds behavior during normal and disease condition for timely intervention, processing of poultry meat and egg, maintenance of farm data etc., play a major role in the development of poultry industry in India by reducing the man power, optimizing the facilities available and increasing the efficiency of farming activities. Among these, management in the hatchery unit plays a crucial role in the development of poultry industry as the supply of best quality chicks determines the profitability of the poultry farming (Yousaf et al., 2019). The productivity of hatchery unit is to provide the best quality chicks with the highest hatchability in order to maximize broiler and layer production efficiency (Yousaf et al., 2021). The hatchability depends on the egg fertility and hatchery management. Maximum hatchability can be achieved by the good quality eggs received from the farm and, successful hatching in the hatchery unit using efficient machines in the hatchery unit (Yousaf et al., 2019).
Introduction of innovative technologies and practices like modernization of hatchery unit, single stage incubation, air handling, alternative hatching systems, adoption of automation system and digitalization of the hatchery unit operations in hatchery management play a vital role in the evolution of the poultry industry to improve efficiency, proficient utilization of resources, solve the challenges, increase hatchery biosecurity, provide controlled environment with the aim to produce good quality chicks (Yousaf et al., 2021). Introduction of technologies in the hatchery unit also proves the significance of latest technologies as a problem solver to face the demanding need in the modern world.
MODERNIZATION OF HATCHERY UNIT:
Hatchability of chicks in the hatchery unit depends on the five important factors: hatching temperature, humidity in incubators and hatchers, ventilation, periodical egg turning, and hatchery sanitation collectively and individually for optimal development of embryo and quality of chicks (Noiva et al., 2014); Wijnen et al., 2020). If there is a failure in even any one of the above leads to a great havoc in the incubators or hatchers which inturn causes great loss to the poultry farmer by affecting the hatchability percentage and poor quality chicks and hence close monitoring of all the factors of hatchery unit is mandatory and hatchery management is crucial in producing good quality chicks. Modern hatchery units are provided with more advanced sensor and environment control technology and real time monitoring system to provide optimal requirements to all sizes of eggs for physiological growth of embroyo throughout the incubation period without any deviation, optimise uniformity, with the precision to create incubation environments that help them to achieve their full genetic potential.
SINGLE STAGE INCUBATION:
As the hatching process is very important, commercial hatcheries always demand the technologies to increase the hatchability and consistent supply of good quality day old chick with the view to enhance production (Yousaf et al., 2019) which lead to switching over to single stage incubation technique from traditional multistage incubation technique in the hatchery units (Jabbar et al., 2019; Mesquita et al., 2021). Single stage incubation with in-built environment control is one of the important advancement in modernization of hatchery unit for better biosecurity, better hatchability, good quality chicks, and minimum manpower as maintenance of environmental control during incubation process is critical for healthy embryonic growth (Hussain et al., 2019). In traditional multistage incubators 5 to 6 different batch eggs are loaded every week and so embryos of various stages of development are maintained in a single machine (Noivd et al., 2014; Jabbar and Yousaf 2017) and thermal balance are achieved by the heat which is transmitted from older embryos to younger embryos and this may cause overheating of the incubator and lead to death of embryo which in turn reduce the hatchability percentage though the traditional incubators are cost effective and energy saver (Yousaf et al., 2019). Whereas, in the single stage incubators single batch eggs are loaded at a time and all the embryos are in the same developmental state. In-built environmental control in the single stage incubators provide uniform temperature, humidity and ventilation needed for the growth of embryo and which is responsible for higher incubation performance like better hatchability and improved chick quality (Mesquita et al., 2021).
AIR HANDLING:
Environmental conditions in the setters and hatchers of hatchery unit are constantly changing as the embryos develop proper ventilation is required to maintain the correct air temperature and relative humidity level. Quality of the circling air in the hatchery unit is important to ensure the good quality chicks and better hatchability. In modern hatchery unit, only the bacteria and fungal free conditioned air is allowed for usage and they are not reused in order to provide favourable hatchery environment. The air handling unit is a central air conditioning machine consists of complete heating, ventilation and air conditioning system that conditions the air supply of hatchery unit by controlling the environmental parameters such as temperature, air flow, and relative humidity levels which are essential to produce high-quality chicks and to achieve the maximum hatchability. Air handling unit is responsible for filtering, cooling or heating, controlling air pressure, humidifying or dehumidifying the incoming external air to provide fresh oxygen and the most conducive environment for the embryo development in the incubators. The pressure-controlled system combines the highest bio-security standards with very low energy consumption, and long-term savings.
ALTERNATIVE HATCHING SYSTEMS:
Under conventional system of hatching, the chicks hatch in darkness, expose to noise and dust (de Gouw et al., 2017; Hedlund et al., 2019) and have the delay in the feed and water accessibility up to 72 hours until they reach the farms due to various factors like differences in the pull out time, handling process, and transportation from hatchery to the farm. These are early life stressors to the chicks and have a negative impact on the post hatch survival, performance and welfare of the chicks in the farm (Archer, 2018). To counter these issues, alternative hatching systems like “hatchery fed”, and “on farming” hatching systems have been developed. Alternative hatching system has many beneficial effects on the quality, health and welfare of the chicks by reducing the number or severity of the early life stressors. In “hatchery fed” system, after hatching the chicks are immediately provided with feed and drinking water and then transported to the farms (Souza da Silva et al., 2021). In “on farming” hatching system, the fertile eggs are transported to the farm on 18th day of incubation and are hatched at the farm and after hatching, the chicks are fed with feed and water in the farm. The chicken embryos are introduced to light during their hatching process which may reduce fear response and stress susceptibility (Archer and Mench, 2017). In “on farming” hatching system, there is no handling of chickens as the day old chicks are not needed for further transportation (de Jong et al., 2019) and thereby reducing the number of early life stressors (Van de Ven et al., 2011).
Many studies proved that alternative hatching systems would result in better health and welfare by an improved immune system development and disease resilience due to the added effects of early feed and water provision and the lower number of early stressors (Hollemans et al. 2021). Alternative hatching systems lower the early chick mortality (Wijnen et al. 2021) and positively affect behavior, health, welfare, and performance of chickens in later life (Hedlund and Jensen, 2021).
ADOPTION OF AUTOMATION SYSTEM:
Handling of hatchery unit operation and administration are very important for the production of high-quality day-old chicks. Introduction of high-quality technical automation starting from handling of eggs to dispatch of chicks is responsible for higher incubation performance and also enable to handle more number of chicks per hatch day. Adoption of automation in candling, imaging techniques like ultrasound to assess the growth of embryo and dead embryos, sexing of embryos, removing of clear eggs, and dead embryos, vaccination etc., improve the biosecurity measures and ease the hatchery management ( Jabbar et al., 2019).
DIGITALIZATION OF THE HATCHERY UNIT OPERATIONS:
Manual processing of data consumes lot of time and more manpower. Usage of computers and software technologies to digitalize the various hatchery unit operations play an important role in modernization of hatchery management. The computers simplify the data processing, analysis, and interpretation. Incorporation of computers in hatchery unit management helps to reduce the labour needed, save time and sort out the data easily and quickly and address the problems easily and quickly for better planning to improve overall efficiency of the modern hatchery unit.
Modern innovations in poultry industry enhance the hatchery and farm operations, improve the efficiency and animal welfare, ensure profitable production and sustainability, minimize the environmental impact to meet increasing demand, with the goal to thrive in the future poultry industry.
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Innovative Technology & Practices Transforming India’s Poultry Farming Sector
