In today’s swine production environment, diseases move fast—and we can’t afford to fall behind. The scale, speed, and interconnectedness of today’s systems mean that pathogens can move through production networks faster than traditional biosecurity measures can track. Written protocols still matter, but they are no longer enough on their own. The industry is being challenged to move faster than disease itself.
At the core of this challenge is a simple reality: movement drives risk. People, animals, feed, and equipment are constantly in motion, creating countless opportunities for disease transmission. While biosecurity plans define protocols, like downtime requirements, wash protocols, and visit order, the gap between intention and execution has historically been difficult to measure.
That gap is where new tools like Farm Health Guardian are changing the game.
Turning movement into actionable intelligence
A recent case study featuring Farm Health Guardian digital biosecurity demonstrates what becomes possible when biosecurity is monitored in real time.
Dr. Christine Mainquist-Whigham shares results from a study conducted at Pillen Family Farms and DNA Genetics in Columbus, Nebraska. In this system, digital geofencing rules were built around an existing biosecurity pyramid that defined how people and assets should move across production sites. These included downtime requirements, trailer wash protocols, and feed delivery sequencing.
“When those biosecurity rules were breached, automated alerts were triggered,” she explains.
During an initial pilot, more than 22,000 site visits were captured digitally in real time – most from trucks and trailers via GPS, and the rest from personnel using the Farm Health Guardian mobile app. What quickly became clear was that real-world behaviour didn’t always align with written protocols, and the data exposed inconsistencies that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
More importantly, the digital biosecurity system transformed the speed and accuracy of disease investigation.
When an outbreak occurred in 2025, the animal health team could define a risk window and instantly trace all associated movements – vehicles, equipment, and people. Instead of relying on paper logbooks or human memory, they had access to continuous, objective data. Tracebacks that once took days could now be completed in hours.
“Utilizing this software, the outbreak response team was able to identify with high confidence the source of infection in five of six outbreaks,” says Dr. Mainquist-Whigham.
In several cases, digital visibility revealed unexpected connections, such as a trailer that briefly entered one site before moving to another, or personnel visits that were never logged manually. These small gaps are often where disease spreads – and where faster insight makes the biggest difference.
The system also proved critical in containment. Once a positive case was identified, farm management could immediately isolate high-risk movements, enforce extended downtime, and monitor compliance in real time. Alerts prevented unauthorized access to high-health sites, helping stop secondary spread before it started.
The result: faster answers, stronger containment, and improved protocols that strengthened overall system biosecurity.
Learn more about generating animal disease trace-outs with real-time data using Farm Health Guardian here.
Why it matters: speed, trust, and market access
The implications of biosecurity software that can protect pigs goes beyond animal health.
As global pork production grows, disease risk is increasingly shaping market access with trade partners asking tougher questions about surveillance, containment, and response.
Countries importing pork increasingly want to know how quickly producers can detect diseases and how confidently they can trace and contain it. Digital biosecurity systems can support pork farmers with real-time data for both biosecurity compliance and to demonstrate that disease risk is being managed.
Investments in biosecurity, surveillance, and technology are becoming proof points of credibility. From on-farm monitoring systems to real-time movement tracking, these tools can build trust with trade partners and help protect market access, even during regional disease events.
“Managing health risk isn’t just about protecting pigs, it’s about protecting business continuity,” says Rob Hannam, Farm Health Guardian CEO.
Moving forward
The lesson is clear: disease moves quickly, but information can move faster – if we let it.
By turning everyday on-farm movements into real-time intelligence, the pork industry can shift from reactive to proactive. Faster detection, faster tracing, and faster response are all achievable.
And in today’s swine industry, moving faster than disease isn’t just an advantage. It’s becoming a requirement.
