13TSB_ENDANI_MilkED: Development of a point of need diagnostic test for infectious disease in milk

“MilkED”项目旨在开发一种设备，快速检测牛奶中的病原体，在牛奶室或牛奶罐中。它的重点是禽分枝杆菌亚种副结核（MAP），这是一种感染牛和其他反刍动物的病原体，引起慢性腹泻、消瘦，并经常导致死亡。除了对畜群健康产生有害影响，导致牛奶产量大幅下降外，它还存在于牛奶中，并能抵抗巴氏消毒，并可能在销售点存在于牛奶中。目前的检测过程冗长且昂贵，而且要在中心实验室进行。为了防止MAP进入食物链，减少感染在动物种群中的传播，我们将开发一种新的设备，直接在农场检测牛奶。“MilkED”工业研究项目由一家制造公司（Epigem）牵头，与一家医疗诊断公司（MV diagnostics）合作，并与一所世界领先的大学（格拉斯哥）在先进诊断领域合作。该联盟将以两项技术创新为基础，开发一种易于使用的快速诊断设备：(i)我们将使用声波，类似于用于超声成像的声波，在一次性药盒中驱动液体和处理少量牛奶（<1ml），并驱动诊断测试得出结果，低功耗（电池供电），几乎不需要培训。（ii）我们将制造类似于声全息图的微结构，在低成本的一次性设备上提供样品处理功能，这些设备插入坐在奶牛或牛奶罐旁边的鞋子大小的读取器。

The 'MilkED' project is aimed at developing a device to rapidly detect pathogens in milk, within the milk parlour or milk tank. It is focused on Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), a pathogen infecting cattle and other ruminants, causing chronic diarrhoea, emaciation, and often leading to death. In addition to detrimental effects on the health of herds, leading to significant decrease in milk production, it is present in milk and resists pasteurisation, and may survive to be present in milk at the point of sale. Currently the detection process is lengthy and expensive and performed in a central laboratory.To prevent MAP entering the food chain and reduce the transmission of the infection within the animal population, we will develop a new device to test milk directly in the farm. The "MilkED" industrial research programme is business led by a manufacturing company (Epigem), working in partnership with a medical diagnostics company (MV Diagnostics), in collaboration with a world leading University (Glasgow) in the field of advanced diagnostics. The consortium will build upon two technical innovations to develop of an easy-to-use rapid diagnostic device: (i) we will use sound waves, similar to the ones used for ultrasound imaging, to actuate liquids and process a small volume of milk (<1ml) within a disposable cartridge and drive a diagnostic test to a result, at low power (battery-operated), requiring virtually no training.(ii) We will fabricate microstructures akin to acoustic holograms to provide the sample processing functions on low-cost disposable devices, that are plugged in to a shoe-sized reader sitting next to the cow or milk tank.