In the poultry industry, product quality is influenced by factors such as increased hatchability, reduced mortality and/or unmarketable birds, improved growth rate, better feed conversion and body composition (e.g., fat vs. muscle). Improvements in these areas can be very beneficial to the producer. Pfizer Poultry Health Division (PPHD) believes in ovo (in the egg) delivery of therapeutics and vaccines may positively impact a bird's growth performance and thereby contribute to improved quality.

Although the animal health industry has developed a variety of treatments for the prevention of poultry diseases, these treatments are not always administered to the birds in ways that ensure effective and consistent results. Conventional application has been post-hatch, through feed and drinking water, or via a spray that treats the birds through their mucus membranes. Many such treatments require multiple post-hatch vaccinations and field boosts and involve costly guesswork. The result is inefficient, inconsistent vaccine delivery.

PPHD has pioneered the development and use of in ovo injection technology, an approach to poultry disease prevention that improves consistency and reliability by inoculating chicks while they are still in the egg. PPHD offers its customers its proprietary platform delivery system called the Embrex Inovoject System, an automated egg injection system leased on a fee-per-egg-injected basis. This automated system punches a tiny hole into the egg shell and then lowers a needle through the hole which delivers the therapeutic product safely and accurately to the embryo. This usually occurs on Day 18 of the bird's 21-day incubation period.

Development of the first in ovo delivery system began in the late-1980s after licensing the technology from the USDA. Initially commercialized in 1993, the system is now the standard delivery method for Marek's disease vaccine in the United States.

• Embrex Inovoject Systems vaccinators are capable of injecting up to 70,000 eggs per hour.
• Nearly all U.S. poultry producers, including Pilgrims Pride, Tyson Foods, and Perdue Farms use the Embrex Inovoject system in their hatcheries.
• Approximately 85% of the 9.6 billion broilers produced annually in the U.S. are inoculated in ovo by the Embrex Inovoject System.
• PPHD has the Inovoject system installed in over 30 countries in Europe, Latin America, Australia, North America, Middle East and Asia.