RapiPath follow-on: Rapid mastitis testing through automated protocols

临床型乳房炎是奶牛场使用抗菌剂的主要原因之一。有证据表明，农场检测有助于激励和吸引农场工作人员控制乳腺炎，但牛群兽医需要持续监测农场方案和程序。现在有许多农场乳腺炎诊断方法可供选择，有助于决定使用哪种抗菌剂。然而，结合农场诊断的乳腺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菌感染可能导致自我治愈。因此，成功的农场诊断测试应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进行各种诊断测试。然而，农业/兽医学中使用的大多数诊断工具的共同挑战是缺乏系统集成和诊断速度缓慢。因此，大量的物流效率低下，浪费增加，并缺乏证据的关键政策制定，特别是对乳制品industry.In这个项目中，财团将建立在IUK项目105144完成的工作，乳腺炎病原体的快速目标识别能够识别16种不同的病原体，促进具体的诊断。提供快速（约1小时），低成本的测试，同时保持出色的灵敏度/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，能够区分污染样品并识别每个样品中存在的病原体，为治疗决策提供信息。通过开发新的硬件和软件解决方案来整理和共享诊断结果，希望改善和保护动物健康和福利，可以克服通过减少疾病而使农场生产率最大化以及与预期产奶量的表达相关的物流障碍。

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.