RapiPath follow-on: Rapid mastitis testing through automated protocols

临床乳房炎是奶牛养殖场使用抗菌剂的主要原因之一。有证据表明，农场现场测试有助于激励和吸引农场工作人员控制乳房炎，但畜群兽医需要对农场规程和程序进行持续监测。现在有许多可供选择的农场乳房炎诊断方法，有助于决定使用哪种抗菌剂。然而，结合农场诊断的乳房炎治疗方案正在迅速变化，现在有一些数据表明，革兰氏阴性感染很可能导致自我治愈。因此，对于成功的农场诊断测试，应该考虑适当的质量保证。诊断的使用被广泛认为是改善动物健康的有力工具，使用各种生化和物理技术的诊断测试种类繁多。然而，农业/兽医中使用的大多数诊断工具面临的一个共同挑战是缺乏系统集成和诊断速度缓慢。因此，物流效率低下，浪费增加，关键政策制定缺乏证据，尤其是乳制品行业。在这个项目中，该联盟将以国际乳联105144项目完成的工作为基础，对乳房炎病原体进行快速目标识别，能够识别16种不同的病原体，便于具体诊断。提供快速(~1小时)、低成本的检测，同时保持出色的敏感性/特异性。一项具体的创新集中在诊断中包含的目标微生物的组合物种面板上，能够区分受污染的样本并识别每个样本中存在的病原体，为治疗决策提供信息。通过开发一种新的硬件和软件解决方案来整理和共享诊断结果，希望动物的健康和福利将得到改善和保护，通过减少疾病和与预期产奶量表达相关的后勤障碍来最大限度地提高养殖场生产力。

Clinical mastitis is one of the major causes for antimicrobial use on dairy cattle farms. There is evidence to demonstrate that on-farm tests help motivate and engage farm staff with the control of mastitis, but continuous monitoring of farm protocols and procedures is required by the herd's vet. There are now many options for on-farm mastitis diagnostics available, helping to decide which antimicrobial to use. However, the mastitis treatment protocols integrating on-farm diagnostics are rapidly changing with some data now available to demonstrate that gram-negative infections are likely to result in self-cure. Therefore, appropriate quality assurance should be considered for a successful on-farm diagnostic test.The use of diagnostics is widely recognised as a powerful tool for improving animal health, with a wide variety of diagnostic tests available using a variety of biochemical and physical techniques. However, a common challenge to most diagnostics tools used in agriculture/veterinary medicine is a lack system integration and a slow pace of diagnosis. As a result, massive inefficiencies in logistics, increased wastage, and a lack of evidence for key policy making, especially for the dairy industry exist.In this project, the consortium will build upon work completed in IUK project 105144 for the rapid target identification of mastitis pathogens capable of identifying 16 different pathogens, facilitating specific diagnosis. Delivering fast (~1hr), low-cost testing whilst maintaining excellent sensitivity/specificity. A specific innovation focuses on the combination species panel of target microorganisms included in the diagnostic, enabling the discrimination of contaminated samples and identifies the pathogens present in each sample, informing treatment decisions.By developing a novel hardware and software solution to collate and share diagnostic results, it is hoped that animal health and welfare will be improved and protected, farm productivity maximised through disease reduction and logistical barriers relating to expression of expected milk yield can be overcome.