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、福利和生产力产生破坏性影响。感染会影响产奶量、幼畜体重增加，在某些情况下会导致急性疾病和迅速死亡。为了避免寄生虫感染的毁灭性后果，农民使用药物预防疾病。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变得不那么有效。为了防止耐药性的进一步发展和传播，通过可持续控制寄生虫（COWS）和可持续控制绵羊寄生虫（SCOPS）等行业咨询机构，建议在治疗动物之前诊断感染。然而，在许多情况下，我们缺乏可以提供快速结果以指导治疗的诊断测试。该项目的目的是开发和提供笔侧测试，农民可以使用，并在10分钟内提供诊断信息。我们将建立在现有的工作，其中我们已经产生了一个侧流测试，以诊断感染寄生虫，肝吸虫。我们将与农民、兽医和动物健康顾问合作，确保生产和交付的笔侧测试能够满足农民的需求，并使他们能够在决策支持系统的支持下做出治疗决定。除了开发肝吸虫的侧流测试外，我们还将开发类似的牛肺线虫侧流测试，一种危害小牛和成年奶牛的严重疾病。我们将评估使用重组蛋白作为侧向流测试的基础，并与领先的生物技术合作，我们将基于重组蛋白产生主要侧向流测试的证据。这两种检测的架构将基于我们现有的第一代肝吸虫检测。该项目将更好地了解如何鼓励行业采用快速诊断检测。它将展示如何以适合大多数农民的方式解释这些测试的结果，最终它将提供第二代肝吸虫侧向流测试和肺线虫诊断测试，以便商业合作伙伴可以考虑将其全面商业化。该项目的成果将首先交付给项目合作伙伴，然后通过我们的项目合作伙伴支持的KE计划向业界推广。

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.