The awards invited nominations for a broad range of innovations – physical, technical, digital or procedural, and is designed to recognise excellence and innovation within the veterinary world.
PBD Biotech CEO, Mark Hammond, will join Sarah Wolfensohn of University of Surrey and Rachel Kirkby of Test&Trace to present their innovations live to a panel of experts at a webinar taking place on 15 February 2021.
Actiphage offers improved management of bTB and Johne’s Disease
Actiphage rapidly and accurately detects and identifies live mycobacteria, the pathogen that causes bovine tuberculosis and Johne’s Disease, in blood or milk samples. Offering the potential of effective disease management for the first time.
Clinical tests are defined by two measures, specificity and sensitivity. The UK Government estimates the accuracy of the Single Intradermal Comparative Cervical Tuberculin (SICCT) skin test to be:
- Specificity 99.98% – the ability of the test to correctly reject healthy animals that don’t have bovine tuberculosis.
- Sensitivity 50 -90% – refers to the ability of the test to correctly identify animals that are infected with the disease.
- Therefore, for a herd with a hundred cows infected with bTB, the SICCT test would miss up to 50; leaving behind a reservoir of infection.
Another issue is that SICCT measures the immune response of the animal, rather than detecting the presence of the mycobacteria and actual infection. Therefore, the skin test may miss cattle that are in the early stages of infection that have not yet developed a strong immune response to the infection and also give a false positive to animals that have been vaccinated.
Actiphage provides direct detection confirming the presence of M. bovis at very early stages of infection, enabling disease management through the removal of these animals from the herd or prior to movement. It also supports the introduction of a vaccine which would provide the ultimate protection of herds.
This webinar is affiliated to the Animal Health Investment Europe Forum, a virtual event 22–23 February 2021.
