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Cameras: another option for pork producers’ technology tool kits

Cameras are all around us. Phones, iPads, computers, Ring doorbells, all have become a part of our everyday lives and it’s difficult to imagine life without them. One Iowa State University faculty member is looking at how cameras in hog barns can help producers recognize sickness and behavior changes.

Joshua Peschel, associate professor in agricultural and biosystems engineering, is conducting research on cyber-agricultural systems that could assist farmers. He said consistent, reliable, accurate, and cost-effective health and behavior understanding of pigs is one of the biggest challenges faced by the swine industry today.

“My research emerges from the critical need for new and innovative tools that expand precision livestock farming for production-scale swine operations,” he said. “My students and I create new technologies, data sets, and computational models for sensing and sensemaking. In other words, we come up with new data sets, using only video, to better manage pigs.”

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I’m Phil Hord, and I’m excited to kick off my first episode as host on The Swine it Podcast Show. It’s a privilege to begin this journey with you. In this episode, Dr. John Deen, a retired Distinguished Global Professor Emeritus from the University of Minnesota, explains how pandemic threats continue to shape U.S. swine health and production. He discusses vulnerabilities in diagnostics, movement control, and national preparedness while drawing lessons from ASF, avian influenza, and field-level epidemiology. Listen now on all major platforms.

"Pandemic events in swine systems continue to generate significant challenges because early signals often resemble common conditions, creating delays that increase spread and economic disruption."