UVC light disinfection reduces bacterial contamination on hatching eggs by up to 95 percent, improving hatchability and chick quality while significantly reducing labor costs compared to manual wiping, though it works best on visibly clean eggs.
- UVC treatment disinfects eggs in approximately two seconds each, compared to 10 seconds for manual wiping—saving roughly 39 hours daily on a 15,000-bird farm
- UVC light damages DNA and RNA in bacteria, preventing replication and specifically targeting horizontal transmission of pathogens from nest and floor environments
- UVC chambers can process up to 600 eggs at a time, making the technology ideal for high-value breeding operations like grandparent and great-grandparent farms
- UVC reduces manual error and training variability since it's a built-in, consistent system that works the same regardless of operator
Ultraviolet-C (UVC) light treatment can cut bacteria counts up to 95% on eggs in the hatchery, reducing the risk of manual error during the disinfection process. Manually wiping every egg to meet hygiene standards is time- and labor-intensive, Dr. Aaron Stephan, research director at Signify, said.
"Picking up a single egg at a time and wiping it down with a wipe is very time consuming from a labor perspective, and because it's consumable, it actually the cost adds up very fast,” he explained.
By comparison, UVC light chambers can disinfect eggs in roughly two seconds each, versus about 10 seconds per egg for manual wiping. On a 15,000-bird farm, that difference translates to roughly two hours a day of UVC treatment compared with 41 hours a day of manual wiping.
"It's more reproducibly successful because it's a built-in system. There's nothing like whether one person does it or a different person does it,” Stephan said. “Whereas if you're doing some sort of chemical disinfection, that really depends on how well that particular person is trained."
How UVC disinfects eggs
Bacterial contamination of hatching eggs typically occurs through one of two routes: vertical transmission, in which a hen already carrying a pathogen forms the egg around it, or horizontal transmission, in which bacteria in the nest or floor environment work through the eggshell after the egg is laid.
UVC light is high energy, short wavelength light that disinfects by damaging the molecular bonds in DNA and RNA, causing mutations that prevent bacteria and other microorganisms from replicating. UVC treatment targets horizontal transmission specifically reducing the bacterial load that can interfere with embryo development or lower chick quality at hatch.
UVC chambers can process up to roughly 600 eggs at a time, making the technology best suited for higher-value tiers of the breeding supply chain, such as grandparent and great-grandparent operations, rather than broiler parent farms.
UVC is not a replacement for basic cleaning, Stephan cautioned.
"One limitation of UVC technology is that it doesn't work well in the presence of a very high organic load," such as feces or mucus, meaning visibly soiled eggs should still be wiped down before treatment.
