Merck Animal Health Announces Winners of the 2024 High-Quality Pork Pignnovation Award

Romain Delcombel, Joao Lopes and Jaap de Wit were recognized for their work to advance swine innovation and technology

Rahway, NJ, November 13, 2024 – Merck Animal Health, known as MSD Animal Health outside of the United States and Canada, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA (NYSE:MRK), today announced the winners of the 2024 High-Quality Pork Pignnovation Award. Following a competitive review process, Romain Delcombel of BioAZ was named Champion of this year’s awards, Joao Lopes of Redsoft Technologica LTDA was Runner-Up and Jaap de Wit from Westfort finished in Third Place. The winners of the Pignnovation Award were recognized for their work to advance swine innovation and technologies in areas that promote positive change in the swine industry, including reproduction, growth, health, welfare and sustainability.

“Merck Animal Health is proud to recognize Romain Delcombel, Joao Lopes and Jaap de Wit as winners of the 2024 High-Quality Pork Pignnovation Awards,” said Rika Jolie, DVM, Ph.D., MBA, global swine lead, Merck Animal Health. “These three individuals and their companies have shown a dedication to advancing the swine industry while putting the welfare of animals first through their innovative solutions.”

Champion: Romain Delcombel, BioAZ

Romain Delcombel is CEO of BioAZ and a veterinarian with more than 15 years of experience in research and development. At BioAZ, he is developeding an immunotherapy alternative to pig castration, a significant welfare concern in the swine industry. Pig castration is traditionally performed at birth to stop the production of testicular hormones that significantly degrade meat quality. BioAZ has a proprietary technology called “engineered VHH,” an immunotherapy derived from camelid antibodies. The solution is effective immediately after a single injection, blocking the hormone that regulates reproduction to shutdown testicular activity and the production of boar taint compounds to ensure meat quality. The immunotherapy is intended for intramuscular administration, making it safe, easy to use and efficient for farmers. It’s also non-hormonal, making it safe for farmers, consumers and the environment. The solution is currently at proof of concept stage.

Runner-Up: Joao Lopes, Redsoft Technologica LTDA

Joao Lopes leads the technology team at Redsoft Technologica LTDA where he is focused on applying data and artificial intelligence to the agricultural industry. His team at Redsoft is developing a solution for sow body condition score monitoring, an assessment that is crucial in high-performing swine farming to ensure the health, productivity, longevity and welfare of pigs, and particularly sows. The initiative seeks to enhance technician safety, improve animal welfare conditions, and enable agile continuous monitoring. Traditionally, body condition score monitoring has relied on subjective evaluation by technicians using visual inspection or the use of a caliper. Lopes and his team are working to test accessible technology suitable for data collection in the field and to develop an AI algorithmic model for recognition, segmentation, and individualization of points relevant to sow spines.

Third Place: Jaap de Wit, Westfort

Jaap de Wit, director of supply chain at Westfort, has helped the company achieve immense growth since he joined more than 20 years ago. His team has developed a solution to improve the pig identification process through the implementation of RFID ear tags and a dedicated transport app, created in partnership with LeeO, that together allow for seamless digitalization and automation. Current methods of pig identification using metal ear tags are inefficient, prone to error and cause stress to the animals. The project aims to modernize the pig identification process while enhancing traceability, increasing operational efficiency, and improving animal welfare. Westfort piloted the technology with 100 farmers, facilitating 75 transport movements per week encompassing about 10,000 animals.

Judging and Criteria

Pignnovation winners were selected out of 39 applicants by a panel of judges comprised of members from Merck Animal Health as well as independent swine industry judges. The projects were evaluated in 13 categories including animal welfare, technical support, novelty and originality, value proposition, and ease of implementation.

About Merck Animal Health

At Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than a century, we’ve been at the forefront of research, bringing forward medicines, vaccines and innovative health solutions for the world’s most challenging diseases. Merck Animal Health, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA, is the global animal health business of Merck. Through its commitment to The Science of Healthier Animals®, Merck Animal Health offers veterinarians, farmers, producers, pet owners and governments one of the widest ranges of veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines and health management solutions and services as well as an extensive suite of connected technology that includes identification, traceability and monitoring products. Merck Animal Health is dedicated to preserving and improving the health, well-being and performance of animals and the people who care for them. It invests extensively in dynamic and comprehensive R&D resources and a modern, global supply chain. Merck Animal Health is present in more than 50 countries, while its products are available in some 150 markets. For more information, visit www.merck-animal-health.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.

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