Chicken Screening System Going to Market

ATLANTA, Nov. 5 -- A vision technology developed by the Georgia Institue of Technology (GaTech) will offer US poultry processing plants a new way to screen chickens for diseases and other aberrations.

Gainco Inc., which manufactures electronic systems for poultry processors, said it has reached an agreement with GaTech to manufacture and market its new "kill line screening system," which uses a single digital camera and control system to identify and screen birds en route to consumption "for septicemia/toxemia, overscalding, broken wings, missing parts and/or bruising," as well as "bird count, empty shackles and mis-hung birds."

According to Gene Parets, vice president, Gainco will market the kill line screening system directly to US customers. The system will also be offered through BOC Thinkage, which makes plant monitoring products, as part of its support services.
"We are excited about the possibilities that machine vision technology offers the poultry industry in the areas of quality control, yield management improvement, process control and labor reduction," Parets said.

Georgia Tech was among the pioneers of computer vision technology for poultry processing. The technology was tested for two years at Gold Kist's processing facility in Carrollton, Ga. Parets said Georgia Tech had the only system with a successful history of operation in a US poultry processing plant.

For more information, visit: www.gainco.com