15AGRITECHCAT4: BirdEase: An integrated diagnostic system for bacterial detection in poultry farms

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Foodborne disease is highlighted as a top priority for the food and beverage industry, responsible for £1.5Bn pa global economic losses (FSA, 2013). Nearly 70% of foodborne disease arises from Campylobacter, Salmonella and E.coli, which are major threats to the health and safety of the food supply chain (FSA, 2014). In collaboration with GreenGage (sustainable agricultural engineers), Cramasie (product designers), 2-sisters (poultry production and supply chain), CASI Everysite (quality assurance certification experts) and Campden BRI (industry researchers, lobbyists and informers), this project will develop an innovative integrated rapid sensing system for bacterial disease pathogens (BirdEase) for use within intensive poultry production systems (IPPS), allowing preventative disease risk assessment to inform management decisions, thereby reducing economic losses for primary producers, improving health and safety of poultry meat within the supply chain and minimising consumer health risk. This responds to the sustainability challenge of increasing livestock sector productivity, whilst minimising disease risk, thereby limiting human health issues. BirdEase sensing system will analyse bacterial pathogens extracted from litter samples introduced into a continuous water flow system from IPPS user footwear, by incorporating a non-clogging bacterial collection and concentration system entirely compatible with IPPS environmental control. Bacterial collection will be performed by an acoustic loop concentrator linked to a circulating water bath, which uses multiple passes through a slanted angle standing wave separation field. Further downstream, mating resonance profiles effectively trap a beam of bacterial particles that posit on acousto-optic sensing devices for imaging and identification, with a view to producing a truly integrated 'sample-to-result' diagnostic system for real-time pathogen monitoring. The first proprietary sensing component excites acoustic waves within a fabricated micrometer array, which probes the acoustic impedance of bacterial pathogens. The second optical sensing component provides further information on cellular characteristics via a standard CCD array to facilitate reliable pathogen identification. Depending on the detection performance required by poultry producers, different gradations of sensing specificity are possible, proportional to the average time of cell irradiation with acoustic and optical beams. The system will generate a wireless telemetry signal from a) the size and frequency of acoustic vibrations and b) the level of attenuation and light refraction, across the surface of the sensing module, which in turn will flag the signature of pathogenic species at the sensor surface. Combined with other sensors in the field, this data (disseminated via GSM) can indicate pathogen sources to a very high probability. Due to efficient coupling between pathogenic cells and opto-acoustic sensors, the system will provide near real-time feedback to a superior level of accuracy than currently available systems.To support sustainability, the underpinning acoustic-optic sensing platform can be adapted by changing the size of the acoustic elements, the specific type of adjoining materials, and similarly by optimising the optical chip to complement the acoustic data, with wide applicability not only within agriculture, but for other diagnostic applications (e.g. healthcare and biodefence).