Delivery of rapid diagnostic tests for sustainable control of parasitic diseases in sheep and cattle

由一系列寄生虫引起的疾病对羊和牛的健康、福利和生产力造成毁灭性影响。感染会影响产奶量和幼畜的体重增加，在某些情况下，还会导致急性疾病和迅速死亡。为了避免寄生虫感染的灾难性后果，农民使用药物来预防疾病。然而，对许多这些药物的耐药性正在发展，这意味着它们在许多农场上的效果越来越差。为了努力防止耐药性的进一步发展和传播，通过行业咨询机构，如可持续控制寄生虫（COWS）和可持续控制绵羊寄生虫（SCOPS），建议在动物治疗前诊断感染。然而，在许多情况下，我们缺乏能够提供快速结果来指导治疗的诊断测试。该项目的目的是开发和提供农民可以使用的栏边测试，并在10分钟内提供诊断信息。我们将以现有的工作为基础，在现有的工作中，我们已经生产了一种横向流动测试来诊断寄生虫感染，肝吸虫。我们将与农民、兽医和动物卫生顾问合作，确保在决策支持系统的支持下，生产和提供畜栏侧测试，以满足农民的需求，并使他们能够就治疗作出决定。除了开发肝吸虫的侧流测试外，我们还将研究牛肺虫的类似侧流测试，这是一种对小牛和越来越多的成年奶牛具有破坏性的急性疾病。我们将评估重组蛋白作为横向流动试验基础的使用情况，并与一家领先的生物技术公司合作，提供基于重组蛋白的主要横向流动试验的证明。这两个测试的架构将基于我们现有的第一代肝吸虫测试。该项目将使人们更好地了解如何鼓励行业采用快速诊断检测方法。它将演示如何以适合大多数农民的方式解释这些测试的结果，最后它将提供第二代肝吸虫侧流测试和肺虫诊断测试，以便商业合作伙伴可以考虑将它们完全商业化。项目的成果将首先交付给项目参与者，然后通过我们的项目合作伙伴支持的KE计划推广到行业。

Diseases caused by a range of parasites have a devastating impact on the health, welfare and productivity of sheep and cattle. Infections affect milk production, weight gain of young animals and in some cases, can cause acute disease and rapid death.To avoid the devastating consequences of parasitic infection, farmers use medicines to prevent disease. However resistance to many of these medicines is developing, meaning they are becoming less effective on many farms. To try and prevent further development and spread of resistance, through industry advisory bodies such as Control of Parasites Sustainably (COWS) and Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep (SCOPS) recommend diagnosing infection before animals are treated. However in many cases we lack diagnostic tests that can provide rapid results to guide treatment.The aim of this project is to develop and deliver pen-side tests, that farmers can use and that provide diagnostic information within 10 minutes. We will build on existing work, in which we have produced a lateral flow test to diagnose infection with the parasite, liver fluke. We will work with farmers, vets and animal health advisors, to ensure that pen-side tests are produced and delivered to meet farmers' needs and empower them to take decisions about treatment, supported by decision support systems.In addition to developing a lateral flow test for liver fluke, we will also work on a similar lateral flow test for bovine lungworm, a devastating and acute disease of calves and increasingly adult milking cows. We will evaluate the use of recombinant proteins as the basis for both lateral flow tests and working with a leading biotechnology we will produce proof of principal lateral flow tests, based on recombinant proteins. The architecture of both tests will be based on our existing, first generation liver fluke test.The project will deliver a better understanding of how to encourage the industry to adopt rapid diagnostic tests as they become available. It will demonstrate how results from those tests can be interpreted in a manner that suits most farmers and finally it will deliver a second generation liver fluke lateral flow test and a lungworm diagnostic test to a point where a commercial partner can consider taking them to full commercialisation. The results from the project will be delivered t project partticipants in the first instance and then rolled out to the industry through KE programmes supported by our project partners.