By Terry Tinkess
AgriNews Staff Writer
GUELPH – If you make your living from livestock, then you know all too well how important it is to lower the potential risk of disease gaining entry to your facility. Now you can control access to your barns in much the same way as you control access to your cell phone.
(Guelph) Farm Health Guardian showcased a working demo of a protocol controlled barn entry system recently at the Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show. The system, which uses facial recognition technology to proactively control livestock and poultry barn entry points, allows farm managers to lower the risk of disease entry and protect animal health.
“With Protocol, there is never a question of who is entering your barn or if they have met your biosecurity requirements,” said Rob Hannam, Farm Health Guardian CEO. “We’re excited to demonstrate Protocol, a serious biosecurity game changer when it comes to managing barn access and simplifying biosecurity.” The demonstration was the first in Canada.
According to Farm Health Guardian, Protocol allows farmers and integrators to take full control of who can enter their farm production sites, but also simplifies biosecurity management. The cutting-edge technology automatically factors in criteria such as previous visits, downtime between barns and farm health status. It is more secure than standard door locks, access keypads, or RFID cards because they lack the behind-the-scenes biosecurity information.
“Producers want assurances that any person entering their barns are disease-free, especially with the recent threats of diseases like African swine fever and avian influenza that have become major concerns,” added Hannam. “We’re proud to offer the most innovative controlled access system available today.”
The Protocol software offers flexibility and is configurable to downtime, health status, flows and other biosecurity policies for any individual farm system. It can even be adapted to roll-up doors and fumigation rooms to ensure that deliveries are biosecure.
Farm Health Guardian is a proven biosecurity management tool to help farms and food companies to improve biosecurity and reduce disease risk, saving time and reducing costs. The system has two main components: Protocol and Farm Health Protect. Both provide software solutions designed to help producers lower cost of production through improved animal health and reduced disease risks. Protocol is a controlled access system and stops unauthorized entries through facial recognition technology. Farm Health Protect is a biosecurity management system that records the movement of trucks on and off farm properties for rapid contact tracing in the event of a disease outbreak.
For more information, you can visit their website at farmhealthguardian.com.
