Five minutes with Liz Turpin, Vice President of BioProcess at TARGAN, on the future of poultry vaccination

2 July 2025

3 minute read

By: TARGAN

Liz Turpin, Vice President of BioProcess at TARGAN, brings a unique blend of expertise to her role as an entrepreneur, scientist, strategist, marketer, and grant writer. Speaking with The Poultry Site, Liz shared insights into the company’s next big step in poultry innovation: an advanced Vaccine Delivery System (VDS). 

Designed to ensure uniform, effective disease protection for every chick, the VDS aims to challenge the status quo of hatchery vaccination. Designed to ensure uniform, effective disease protection for every chick, the Vaccine Delivery System aims to challenge the status quo of hatchery vaccination.

TARGAN is best known for WingScan™, its AI-driven chick sexing platform. Can you explain the vision behind this new vaccine delivery system?

With TARGAN’s Vaccine Delivery System, we’re aiming to completely rethink how hatcheries vaccinate chicks. Traditionally, it's all been about mass vaccination, sprays or gels over a large number of birds. We’re moving toward individual vaccination, where each chick is identified and vaccinated in a precise, controlled way. It's about improving performance by ensuring healthier birds through uniform and precise vaccine delivery.

What are the current challenges with mass vaccination that you're hoping to address?

Hatcheries are under constant pressure to process huge volumes of chicks, quickly. Traditionally the industry has relied on mass vaccination methods like spray vaccination at the hatchery - a practical approach in theory, but inconsistent in practice. With traditional spray methods, vaccine is sprayed or applied in gel form over groups of chicks, but it can yield inconsistent results – some birds may receive too little, others too much, and some may miss it entirely.

The larger volume of liquid on the chicks risks chilling the birds, impacting welfare and early development. The effectiveness of spray vaccination is also dependant on preening behaviors because chicks ingest the vaccine by grooming themselves or each other. This variability leads to uneven protection and performance issues down the line at the farm, sometimes requiring further vaccination for missed chicks.

In contrast, our precise system ensures every chick is vaccinated properly, resulting in uniformity, accuracy, and early protection, all without compromising the chicks' well-being, which is a big step forward for the industry.

Can you explain how the Vaccine Delivery System works, from a technical perspective?

A lot of thought and technology has gone into the VDS. It begins with optimized bird handling, as keeping chicks calm and stable is critical welfare and for the processes that follow. We then use imaging cameras, machine learning, and advanced algorithms to detect each chick, identify its eye, and administer the vaccination precisely.

There are also two other major components of the Vaccine Delivery System to note: our control system, which essentially runs the brain of the machine, coordinating all the steps; and a vaccine handling system, which ensures that each bird receives the exact volume and a uniform dose of vaccine. The volumes delivered are small, so getting it right every single time is crucial.

Why is uniform vaccination so important?

It’s the foundation of optimal flock performance. When you ensure that every bird is vaccinated properly and on time, you reduce the variability in how they respond to disease challenges. Missed birds don’t just put themselves at risk, they can affect the whole flock, and our system helps eliminate that variability.

Uniform vaccine delivery means healthier birds, fewer losses, and more consistent performance at the farm. Producers benefit through improved productivity, reduced treatment costs, and ultimately, better profits.

Final thoughts?

At TARGAN, we’re committed to using advanced tech to solve real-world problems in animal agriculture. WingScan™ helped change how we think about sexing at scale. Now, with the Vaccine Delivery System, we’re applying that same innovation to vaccination, with the goal of creating healthier, more uniform flocks from the very beginning. 

We’re aiming for an early 2026 for commercial rollout, so stay tuned and get in touch if you’re interested in learning more at [email protected]. 

It’s an exciting time for the industry as we believe this technology has the potential to fundamentally improve vaccination strategies in hatcheries.