Merck Animal Health, a division of Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK), is buying Targan, a privately-held company that develops and commercializes biodevice solutions to improve performance outcomes for the poultry industry. Merck Animal Health has invested in Targan since 2017 and has been one of the company’s largest shareholders.
The acquisition will broaden Merck Animal Health’s portfolio in commercial poultry operations with WingScan, an automated solution that uses vision technology to identify and sort chicks by gender, processing up to 160,000 chicks per hour. The technology, which can scale to any size hatchery operation, captures high-resolution images of each chick’s feathers and analyzes them in real-time using advanced engineering capabilities and proprietary algorithms.
Targan also has the potential to develop additional biodevices within poultry and other livestock species, according to the two companies.