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The livestock industry is under pressure to produce more protein with fewer resources while managing rising disease risk, tightening margins, and growing climate expectations. At the same time, breakthroughs in AI, biotechnology, and precision farming are opening new opportunities to transform how animal agriculture operates.

Against this backdrop, more than 500 global leaders from across the livestock value chain will gather in Fort Worth, Texas on April 8–9, 2026, for the Animal AgTech Innovation Summit at the Hilton Fort Worth.

A key focus of this year’s event is the next generation of innovators developing solutions to some of the sector’s biggest challenges, from methane reduction and disease prevention to automation, genetics, and AI-powered farm management.

Spotlight on Emerging Innovators

Early-stage companies will pitch and showcase their technologies at the summit, offering new approaches to improving efficiency and resilience across livestock systems.

Featured start-ups include:

• Agteria Biotech (Sweden): Develops solutions to reduce methane from enteric fermentation, with a mission to eliminate 1% of global GHG emissions by 2035.
• Ambient Carbon (Denmark): Develops technologies that eliminate greenhouse gases at the source and in ambient air.
• Daro (USA): Provides whole-herd, non-invasive molecular pathogen and genomic strain surveillance, enabling early disease detection in livestock.
• HEFT (Sweden): Develops and manufactures the next generation of humane stunning and euthanasia technology for the livestock industry.
• KiposTech (USA): Delivers AI‑enabled air‑health monitoring and a filterless non‑thermal plasma system that eliminates airborne pathogens, dust, and ammonia inside barns.
• Verility (USA): Delivers a low‑cost, non‑invasive mobile fertility diagnostic, Fertile‑Eyez™, bringing lab‑grade reproductive insights directly on‑farm.
• Völur (Norway): Provides AI‑driven decision‑support that uses digital twins to optimize carcass balance, maximize profitability, and improve weekly planning for meat processors.
• Zero Tolerance (USA): Provides a patent‑pending solution that removes stray voltage and electrical noise to boost animal health and maximize farm productivity.

These innovators will present their technologies through rapid-fire pitching sessions designed to highlight solutions addressing key industry priorities such as climate adaptation, biosecurity, automation, and data-driven decision-making.

Showcasing the Next Wave of Scale-Ups

The Scale-Up Showcase will also highlight growth-stage companies already demonstrating commercial traction and real-world deployment.

New for 2026, these scale-ups will share case studies on how their technologies are moving from early adoption to industry implementation.

Featured scale-ups include:

• Agscent (Australia): Creates non‑invasive, easy‑to‑use breath biopsy diagnostic sensors that enhance livestock health, productivity, and the wellbeing of those working with them.
• Innogando (Spain): AI-powered cattle monitoring transforming animal behavior data into actionable decisions.
• Optum Immunity (USA): Delivers novel gut‑health technologies that boost immunity and drive strong ROI through Cosabody™ across all poultry segments.
• ProtonDx (USA): Its Dragonfly Molecular Diagnostic platform enables fast, portable molecular testing to improve on farm pathogen detection and animal health.
• SpayVac (USA): Specializes in innovative, breeding control using a proprietary injectable birth control vaccine.

Where Innovation Meets Industry

Delegates will engage with these companies through a range of interactive formats designed to accelerate collaboration:

• Start-Up Exhibition: provides a dedicated space to meet founders, explore technologies, and schedule one-to-one meetings
• Start-Up Showcase: offers a fast-paced pitching platform where early-stage innovators present their solutions to investors and industry leaders and receive feedback live on stage.

Building the Future of Animal Protein Production

With a rapidly expanding line-up of innovators and industry leaders, the Animal AgTech Innovation Summit in Fort Worth offers a unique platform to discover new technologies and build partnerships that accelerate progress across the global livestock industry.

Senior leaders from global producers, investors, feed and animal health companies, and policymakers will come together for two days of insights, collaboration, and networking focused on the future of animal agriculture.