Weekly Livestock-Equine News: March 16, 2026

VANE invests in autonomous monitoring firm Poultry Patrol

The Veterinary Angel Network (VANE) announced its investment in Poultry Patrol, a robotics company developing an autonomous robotic platform that operates inside barns, stimulating bird movement, identifying potential health concerns and providing diagnostics between human visits. Founded in 2024, Poultry Patrol reports that early results indicate the robots can improve flock activity and help producers identify potential issues sooner. VANE is an angel investment group focused on early-stage animal health innovation.

Seek Labs reports on trial of CRISPR-based treatment of African Swine Fever

Seek Labs announced the successful completion of a therapeutic trial using CRISPR-based technologies to target the African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) in pigs. The trial, which replicated and expanded an earlier trial, demonstrated pigs infected with ASFV and treated with Seek Labs’ CRISPR-based systems survived longer than untreated infected pigs. The company is developing systems intended to disrupt viral replication, slow progress of an infection and allow animals to mount an immune response.

TARGAN reports closing $100M financing agreement with Symbiotic Capital

TARGAN, an animal health and agtech company, announced it closed a $100 million financing agreement with Symbiotic Capital, a private credit fund specializing in the healthcare sector. TARGAN is the developer of WingScan, an automated chick sexing system developed for broiler hatcheries. TARGAN reports its revenue more than doubled from 2024 to 2025, and the company expects further growth in 2026.

Study finds tNGS swine respiratory panel effective in detecting pathogens

A Swine Health Information Center-funded study aimed to improve detection of common and emerging swine pathogens using a next generation sequencing (tNGS) panel showed strong agreement between tNGS and PCR, high specificity, and robust sensitivity across clinically relevant pathogen loads. Moreover, the panel successfully identified mixed infections and detected pathogens that may be missed by targeted PCR testing alone. The study supports the use of tNGS as a complementary diagnostic and surveillance tool.

GrazeStat among recipients of LaunchLNK grant

GrazeStat, a developer of a scalable early-detection system for proactive equine care, is among startups to receive a grant from the Lincoln (Nebraska) Partnership for Economic Development. The company’s system converts passive equine behavior – e.g., subtle deviations in feed and water intake – into predictive health intelligence. The non-dilutive grant of $20,000 is awarded to high-growth startups establishing or expanding their operations in Lincoln.

GAO recommends strengthening federal incentives for veterinary drug makers

The U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that Congress expand the statutory five-year limit on conditional approval for animal drugs to “balance the goals of increasing drug availability to address unmet animal health needs.” The agency said that many of the needs that existed when the conditional approval pathway was created in 2004 remain unmet, including the need for FDA-approved drugs to treat parasites in sheep and goats and bacterial infections in fish.