Ancera Unveils New Detection Tools to Support Food Safety in Poultry Industry

BRANFORD, Conn. — Ancera, a developer of supply chain intelligence, announced the release of two new microbial detection tools designed to identify and enumerate Clostridium perfringens and total viable bacteria (TVB) in poultry.

Ancera's new assays will address critical challenges within the poultry industry, spanning both live operations and processing, in order to help companies increase productivity, food safety and interventional efficacy.

“PIPER is the only platform that combines molecular and classical microbiology capabilities with an operationally relevant time-to-result,” said Arjun Ganesan, CEO of Ancera. “The Clostridium and TVB assays will double the number of novel assays on the PIPER platform. Retail customers see Clostridium perfringens as a productivity and animal welfare concern, and our technology can help innovative poultry companies take action and gain market share. TVB has significant implications on reducing microbial loads, susceptibility and sanitation. We are excited to share these assays with trial partners as we develop the data science models and software for full commercialization.”

Ancera's Clostridium assay specifically enumerates and monitors Clostridium perfringens, the causative agent of necrotic enteritis (NE) in poultry, providing the industry a new tool to manage NE risk. The assay will help integrators to determine and track Clostridium load in their system, providing additional visibility of impact on key production metrics and overall animal health. The monitoring technique also has implications for assessing intervention effectiveness in certain animal welfare programs. When combined with Ancera's Coccidia System Monitoring (CSM) product and analytical capabilities, the combination of tracking Coccidia oocysts and Clostridium load in near real-time provides insight into the effects of gut health on production. 

Ancera's pen trials, conducted with Ozark Avian Research, have demonstrated a strong correlation between the number of Clostridium perfringens cells shed in feces with lesion scores as well as body weight gain in the birds. The effect of Clostridium on the poultry industry, even when the birds may not show clinical symptoms, can be significant, leading to inefficient feed utilization, reduced weight gain, decline in feed conversion ratio and increased number of condemnations at processing. The clinical disease can cause mass fatalities, resulting in economic and welfare risks. According to The National Library of Medicine, Clostridium contributes to a $6 billion revenue loss for the global poultry industry.

Ancera has also introduced a Total Viable Bacteria (TVB) assay, the first true non-enrichment, microbial quantitation assay focused on same-shift process improvement and quality control at the plant. This tool provides quantifiable microbial information, enabling integrators to understand whether their processes are working to reduce microbial load. Once fully commercialized, the technology will produce results within a single working shift, Ancera said, unlocking real-time trend analysis and decision-making for improved compliance and sanitation. This represents a significant decrease from traditional 48–72-hour turnaround times, decreasing the risk of compliance and recall risk, said the company.

The new assays will be made available in 2024 to a limited set of trial customers to generate user feedback and accelerate a fully commercialized software product.

To lead the rollout of these two new diagnostics tools and the new capabilities of Ancera's Command Center platform, Ancera hired Troy Hatlevig as its vice president of product. Hatlevig, formerly the vice president of supply chain product for Wayfair, joined the company in November 2023.

“Ancera is on the frontlines of innovation in food supply chain safety, and each new product launch represents a milestone in ensuring the food security of the United States," said Hatlevig. “Poultry is a complex living, breathing supply chain. We will need to listen to scientists, engineers and customers to meet the needs of the industry as they strive to enhance food productivity and consumer safety.”