Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Center for Avian Disease (Director Jang Hyung-kwan) has joined forces with integrated food company Harim Co., Ltd. and animal drug development specialist BioD Co., Ltd. to establish global hygiene standards and differentiate chick quality.

JBNU Center for Avian Disease announced on the 21st that it signed a multilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Harim and BioD at the Conference Room on the 4th floor of Harim's headquarters to introduce Harim's chick quality differentiation technology.

The signing ceremony was attended by Jang Hyung-kwan, Director of the JBNU Center for Avian Disease, Professor Wi Baek, Jeong Ho-seok, CEO of Harim, Kang Min, CEO of BioD, Park Tae-wook, Head of the CRO Division at BioD, and other representatives from industry, academia and research.

Under the agreement, the JBNU Center for Avian Disease will lead a two-stage project to introduce chick quality differentiation technology and will commence full-scale research. The project period is three years, through May 31, 2029.

The project applies and standardizes the advanced disease diagnostic and biosecurity technologies the center has accumulated to Harim's domestically largest poultry production infrastructure. Through this, it aims to enhance hygiene and disease management across rearing and hatchery stages and to raise the international competitiveness of the domestic poultry industry.

The center will first establish a biosecurity management manual based on hygiene grades of farms and hatcheries and will promote the introduction of a Salmonella-free certification system.

It will also develop a standard diagnostic protocol for Marek's disease and pursue its registration as a national standard diagnostic method. The center will oversee field demonstration and clinical evaluation of a next-generation "hatchery vaccine platform" capable of responding to co-infections of avian influenza (AI) and infectious bronchitis (IB), in order to verify the effectiveness and scientific reliability of vaccination-based disease control.

Jang Hyung-kwan, Director of the JBNU Center for Avian Disease, said, "This agreement is a leading model of industry–academia–research cooperation in which a university research center's unique disease-control core technologies change industry hygiene standards. We will establish an accredited certification system to secure clean flocks—reducing Salmonella incidence to below 0.5%—and set a global standard for domestic livestock disease control."

Jeong Ho-seok, CEO of Harim, said, "Through the JBNU Center for Avian Disease's proven technologies and biosecurity consulting, we expect to create a virtuous cycle in which contract rearing farms reduce disease risks and can focus more on rearing. We will actively cooperate to establish a safe, high-quality chick production system."