Researchers at Purdue University have developed an on-site bovine respiratory disease test that give results within an hour. BRD causes half the cattle deaths in North American and costs the beef industry $900 million a year. Current testing takes several days, so farmers must treat before knowing what pathogen caused the disease which can lead to ineffective or overuse of antibiotics.
Source: Purdue University, December 6, 2021. Link. We’ve been working to improve our test to get it out of the lab and into the hands of farmers and veterinarians, and it worked very well in the field,” Mohit Verma, professor of agricultural and biological engineering said. The technology created by Verma’s team can identify three strains of bacterial among the top four that cause BRD: Pasteurella multocida, Mannheimia haemolytica, and Histophilus somni.
INSIGHTS: In a parallel project, Verma is using the same technology for a saliva-based test for Covid-19.