MCCI are at National Ploughing Championships in Fenagh, Co. Carlow to showcase the first prototype of “Bovisense”, an on-farm diagnostic kit. The system is an innovative point-of-care bovine disease diagnostics system for vets, which diagnoses a range of IBR related virus within 15 minutes. A multi-disciplinary team led by MCCI in collaboration with the Nanotechnology group from Tyndall National Institute are working to commercialise the product to bring it to market.
Boivsense is a portable handheld diagnostics reader with disposable sensor cartridges for disease diagnostics for use on the farm. Within the dairy and meat sectors, animal diseases result in losses of over 20% in global production. Preventable losses due to the Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) amounts to almost $1B in the US and €102M in Ireland, annually. Bovisense will provide vets with these testing capabilities on-farm, enabling the targeted treatment of cattle, thereby resulting in a reduced use of antibiotics. The prototype will be shown at the MCCI booth (located in the Innovation Arena, Block 3, Row 13, Stand 273) where the researchers will be demonstrating how the system works. The team will demonstrate how biosensor technology provides rapid, label-free and cost-efficient sensing capability in a compact size, and discriminates between positive and negative samples obtained from cattle.
Dr. Niamh Creedon, Technology Commercialisation Manager, MCCI explains , “Through our work with vets we have identified that the availability of test results on-farm would primarily save time; but would also enable targeted informed treatments, which is of benefit to bovine health. We’re delighted to have the opportunity to show our prototype to attendees at the ploughing who in time will be the end users of our product.”
To find out more about this innovative technology visit the MCCI booth at the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena, Block 3, Row 13, Stand 273.