Current hatchery practices still allow many eggs that will not hatch to be placed in incubators, wasting energy, time, and space while increasing the chance of contamination that can harm healthy eggs

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. $298,174 on February 1, 2026, under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI, CFDA 10.310) to develop a fast, non-destructive imaging and artificial intelligence system for identifying fertile eggs before incubation. The project combines advanced imaging with AI-trained models to detect internal egg characteristics that indicate fertility, building a reference library of imaging patterns to enable consistent screening at the pace required by modern hatcheries. Testing will occur on new egg samples from multiple sources to validate performance under real-world variation. The work aims to reduce waste and contamination risk in hatchery operations while enabling redirection of infertile eggs into safe food ingredient uses instead of disposal. Performance occurs in Athens, Georgia, with a completion date of January 31, 2028.

This project proposes a fast, non-destructive way to identify which eggs are likely to hatch before incubation begins. The approach combines advanced imaging with artificial intelligence to detect small differences inside the EGG that relate to fertility, differences that are difficult to see reliably with manual candling. By building a reference library of imaging patterns and training an AI model to sort eggs as fertile or infertile, the project aims to support consistent screening at the speed needed for modern hatcheries. The system will be tested on new EGG samples from different sources to confirm IT works under real world variation. Results from this work can help hatcheries reduce waste, improve efficiency, and lower contamination risks, while creating a pathway to redirect infertile eggs into safe, valuable food ingredient uses instead of discarding them.