# BioSec Bob’s Daily Briefing
## Wednesday, August 5, 2026
BioSec Bob here on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 — let’s get straight to the swine side first.
National Hog Farmer is reporting on a tool that could help you spot trouble before it starts. Researchers have developed a model to predict nursery mortality by looking at conditions on the sow farm itself. The work identifies specific risk factors present during the suckling period that carry forward into the nursery stage, which means you can take targeted action while pigs are still at the source. The model pulls together data on sow health, colostrum quality, piglet vigor at birth, and early weaning indicators to forecast how a group will perform once they hit the nursery. For producers running integrated operations, this kind of early visibility on mortality risk could reshape how you manage transition protocols and destination farm assignments.
Speaking of what happens after weaning, Pork Business has dug into something a lot of producers overlook — water quality in the nursery. Poor water chemistry isn’t always visible, but the publication found it can quietly suppress feed conversion and average daily gains when mineral content, pH, or bacterial loads drift outside target ranges. Pigs won’t show dramatic clinical signs of bad water, but growth just plateaus. The piece walks through what to test for — iron, hardness, nitrates, and pathogens — and how simple filtration and treatment adjustments can lift performance back up. It’s a hidden lever most operations have but aren’t optimizing.
Now to a federal program that should matter to anybody running outdoor or pastured swine. AgNet West reports the USDA has expanded its feral swine eradication program to $35 million, extending operations into new regions to protect commercial farms from disease spillover and property damage. Feral swine populations carry diseases including pseudorabies and brucellosis and destroy pasture and facilities. The expansion targets high-risk areas where wild populations are growing and getting closer to working livestock. The program combines aerial surveys, ground trapping, and targeted removals — and the agency is partnering with state wildlife agencies to coordinate timing and coverage.
On the disease monitoring and response side, National Hog Farmer reports the HotHog app has secured $1.15 million in additional funding to expand its reach. The tool sends real-time alerts to producers and veterinarians when respiratory disease patterns emerge in a region, giving early warning before clinical signs show up across multiple farms. The funding will allow the platform to add more participating operations and improve the speed and geographic resolution of its detection network.
Back to regulation now. National Hog Farmer is covering pork producers’ push for uniform national food ingredient standards. Right now, ingredients approved in one state can be restricted in another, forcing processors and ingredient suppliers to maintain separate product lines and documentation. Producers want a single federal baseline to reduce compliance costs and simplify sourcing. The industry is making the case directly to USDA and FDA that fragmented rules are driving up production costs without corresponding food safety gains.
Finally, across the ocean, The Hindu is reporting that India’s Council of Agricultural Research has developed an indigenous vaccine candidate for African swine fever. ICAR completed preclinical trials on a vaccine using a modified virus strain and is moving toward field testing. No country has yet deployed a widely available commercial ASF vaccine, so any breakthrough here could reshape disease management globally if efficacy holds up in the field.
Keep monitoring your water systems and stay sharp on disease surveillance — it’s a full news day.