Friday, March 29, 2024

LIC helps fight pandemic

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For over a century, LIC has provided genetics expertise, information and technology to the dairy sector, but covid-19 saw it don a new hat in the battle against the global pandemic.
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An innocuous piece of laboratory equipment used for DNA testing by LIC suddenly became one of the country’s most sought-after machines during the covid-19 pandemic, as the Government scrambled to find a way to efficiently test masses of people for the deadly disease.

Called the Kingfisher, it allows scientists to simultaneously extract the DNA of up to 96 animals at once for testing.

That same process could be used to extract the DNA from humans or RNA from viruses, so scientists can carry out a PCR test for covid-19.

DHB’s around the country had the means to analyse RNA, but not at the scale that was needed during the covid lockdown in March last year, LIC general manager of operations and service David Chin says.

“They were needing to do thousands of these tests every week. I think there were about 16 of these in the country at that time and we had eight of them,” he says.

All of a sudden around the world, governments rushed to buy Kingfishers for mass covid testing.

As the DHB’s and Ministry of Health (MoH) was rapidly scrambling to find the necessary equipment to cope with the sudden demand for testing, LIC chief executive Wayne McNee contacted health authorities and the Kingfisher was loaned for two months while they waited for their own machine to arrive.

While the LIC GeneMark laboratory was also receiving samples from farmers who autumn calve, they had plenty of capacity because the laboratory is geared up for the spring calving peak.

“We were lucky because we weren’t at our peak because at peak, they’re being used every single day. If it had happened in October, it would have been a real problem,” Chin says.

Fortunately for LIC, their animal health testing service was different to the covid PCR test, which meant it was largely unaffected by the lockdown.

LIC technical manager Mark Walker says the co-operative had been using the machines for years.

“Internationally, a lot of people have cottoned on to what we have cottoned on to – that these machines are a very fast and effective way of getting DNA out of samples in a high throughput manner.

“I even saw a press conference where Donald Trump was standing next to a table with one sitting on it,” Walker says, adding there are alternatives to extracting DNA, but those processes were less efficient.

“By the time it takes one of these things to do 96 DNA extractions, a person doing it another way might only be able to do eight or nine,” he says.

It was not just the Kingfisher that was sought-after. Single-use disposable tips, which house the sample where the DNA/PCR is used, also became a hot commodity.

LIC typically uses about 20 boxes containing these tips per month. During the covid lockdown, LIC’s supplier told them there were five boxes left worldwide and they could spare only one.

LIC still has a small supply, but has scaled back its usage and now uses an alternative supply of tip from a different manufacturer.

“All throughout the season we were saying, ‘What’s the next thing that’s going to be in short supply?” he says.

“Now, the whole world needs to do high throughput DNA extraction, DNA testing – all of the positive covid stuff – we’re all starting to scramble for the same consumables.”

It also caught the equipment manufacturers, who were used to a steady stream of demand off guard.

“Overnight it skyrocketed,” he says.

While the shortage of plasticware did cause some disruption to LIC’s day-to-day operations, Chin says, overall, LIC’s operations were not affected too badly.

The lockdown also affected LIC’s ability to install new equipment in the laboratories. 

The people who install the equipment are not New Zealand-based and with the borders shut, they instead had to use locals who were instructed via Skype cameras on how to correctly install and use the equipment.

“Since then, you’ll run out of one type of plasticware and have to scramble around and find something similar that you can then use and validate,” Chin says.

Walker says when shortages arose, they would see if working alternatives were available and how long before the laboratory needed to be closed. The labs came within a few weeks of closure due to the shortages on a couple of occasions.

“Last year we were lurching from each one of those,” he says.

Unfortunately, Chin says, the supply issues look set to continue this year.

“Regardless of what happens with the vaccine, it’s going to take a long time before the pressure comes off the need to do all of this testing. I see us living in this space for quite a while longer,” he says.

Despite the disruption, Chin says they have tried to keep it as close to business as usual for farmer services.

“We ran a countdown clock because we knew at some point we would need to say, ‘guys, you need to put those samples back in the freezer’. Fortunately, it never got to that. But there were sleepless nights,” he says.

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