Early Detection of paraTB on the Farm

Dairy Farmers need to detect Johnne's Disease (JD) or ParaTuberculosis (pTB), more efficiently and reliably to reduce economic loss. JD is a bacterial infection affecting both dairy and beef cattle and impacts upon productivity and profitability; its incidence is cited at between 30-80% in some literature. The impact on the UK industry is between £5 and £20m pa. Internationally, taking the USA as a baseline, the impact is £130m. The aim of this project is to develop a detector that is specific to JD to give the farmer and the veterinarian rapid, easy diagnosis. This system is based on an instrument that samples the air and analyses the atmosphere on farm for a unique mix of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) which indicates the biochemistry of the JD organism. Any change in the VOC mixture to include these VOCs, will provide a diagnosis to JD upon which the Farmer and Veterinarian can make informed decisions. It is envisioned that air samples of faecal matter will be taken from cows about to calf -- allowing the farmer to separate out infected; uninfected and carrier cows and then keeping the uninfected new born calves with the uninfected animals. The reduction in JD would have an impact of herd animal welfare and productivity (milk and meat) and contribute to a more sustainable UK diary industry. This project will include experimental work showing that the concept works and will comprise the selection of JD specific sensors from existing arrays of sensors at Robo and then to carry out 4 months of testing (5 data points) on two farms. This work is expected to substantiate the results of an earlier privately funded "look/see" short project. The second phase will involve evaluating the market for this type of instrument -- identifying the actual need and format of what is needed and evaluating the market in the UK and globally.