Farm Health Guardian seeking pilot project participants

Farm Health Guardian is looking to test its digital biosecurity technology with farms and food companies across Canada. The company said in a release the ideal project participants are farms or food companies with multiple connected sites, such as pig production systems; transport or feed companies looking to verify vehicle biosecurity; and veterinarians who oversee a group of farms with shared biosecurity protocols.

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To support this testing, the company is receiving Government of Canada funding, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).

“Strong biosecurity practices within a food system are one of the best ways to reduce animal disease, which is a costly problem for farmers and food companies,” said Rob Hannam, CEO of Farm Health Guardian. “Every farm business is a little bit different, so it’s important to demonstrate how the technology works in that situation.”

Animal disease is a major issue for the livestock and poultry sector in Canada and globally. In swine, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) costs $200 million per year in Canada. In poultry, commercial farms in Canada lost nearly seven million birds in 2022 due to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Farm Health Guardian said there are big gains to be made from using modern digital technologies as opposed to the current practices that tend to be more manual and time consuming, especially when it comes to biosecurity.

“This investment means we can help more farms and food companies reduce the risk of disease spread, improve animal health and reduce losses,” said Hannam. “Our focus will be to demonstrate the value of adopting digital biosecurity technology to farmers and food companies across Canada and in the Midwest U.S.”

Farm Health Guardian automates biosecurity to send biosecurity breach alerts, stop unauthorized entry, and verify requirements to protect against disease transmission.

To learn more about the project, contact: [email protected].