Rebecca Schweitzer Benner

JACOBUS, Pa. — Leveraging a company that creates aptamers — artificial DNA sequences that can bind to proteins — and a second one with tech to monitor pathogens, start-up company AptAvian is working to detect avian influenza in the air as a first step towards treating the disease. That’s just the beginning, though. AptAvian President George DeVaux and Thomas Caltagirone, CEO of aptamer-developer Aptagen, see the technology aiding with other animal illnesses and, possibly, human health.

Three billion eggs from broiler hatcheries were rendered or sent to the landfill in 2021. This year will be the 15th that such eggs are not allowed to enter the breaking market, after the Food and Drug Administration changed the rules in 2009 for food safety.

In late February, USDA led an agribusiness trade mission to Luanda, Angola, in hopes of developing the export market. The Kansas and Wisconsin departments of agriculture and 16 U.S. companies and organizations sent representatives alongside Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small. Jena Gress, manager of global marketing for the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, was one of those individuals. She answered some questions about the trip and experience.