Every year the New Zealand dairy industry foots a $300 million bill for mastitis treatment and production losses and the need to responsibly manage antibiotics to reduce resistance means the pressure is on farmers to get smarter about how they approach the problem.
Koru Diagnostics recently closed its first funding round to help commercialise cost-effective laboratory and cow-side tests for mastitis infection that will provide the runway to its commercial launch next spring.
Chief executive Rhys McKinlay said it is indicative of the test’s ability to help identify a common problem that investors engaged readily, so much so the offer was heavily over-subscribed, providing the company with a war chest to get its product to market.
The company intends to launch its laboratory-based high-throughput test but appreciates farmer interest in an on-farm test will be high.
The highest rate of mastitis infections usually coincides with the most intense, busy period on a dairy farm in spring. Traditional tests require several days to culture the bacteria to determine the most likely cause of infection. In NZ the bacteria are usually either Streptococcus uberis or Staphylococcus aureus.
“Rather than wait almost a week for a lab result most farmers will take an educated guess or simply treat the cow with whatever antibiotic they have at hand and it may not always be the best treatment for that particular infection.”
The Koru test can deliver a result specifying which bacteria the cow is infected with in 10 minutes, almost 24 hours faster than the nearest rival and a full five days quicker than lab culture results.
Rather than trying to detect the bacteria itself the technology identifies biomarkers specific to S uberis or S aureus bacteria. Biomarkers are the naturally occurring molecules associated with a specific cell type.
“Staph aureus can be a particularly elusive bacteria to detect and some culture-based and DNA technologies can struggle to pick up a positive result.
“We don’t have to rely on growing or detecting the actual bacteria to positively identify the likely cause of the infection.”
Being able to quickly identify the bacteria, particularly S aureus, should make for smarter and more specific antibiotic selection to deal with it.
That is an area receiving greater scrutiny as antibiotic resistance awareness crosses into the veterinary sphere.
The Veterinary Association has set a goal that NZ will not need antibiotics for maintenance of animal health and welfare by 2030.
“Early and accurate identification of the causal agent and appropriate treatment aligns well with the move towards more judicious use of antibiotics.”
McKinlay said the test has attracted strong interest from commercial companies with an eye on how it will help maintain antibiotic effectiveness and keep use sustainable.
Farmers have provided a good test platform for the technology and some modifications on which bacteria it can identify will be required for use in the northern hemisphere.
The physical appearance of the hand-held test remains to be determined once commercial partners have had input into the final design.
“It’s similar to a human pregnancy test with simple, visual indicators confirming which bacteria are causing the infection.”
McKinlay sees potential for the intellectual property to be applied across diagnostic tools for identifying human diseases and in animal and human vaccines.
He agrees having an outwardly simple solution to a big problem has helped the company with its funding round. He also attributes success to date to Palmerston North based BCC, a specialist business development organisation for NZ start-ups in agriculture and agritech.
“They have been brilliant for us. They helped us with forming the company, appointing a strong board, refining our investment pitch, building investment interest in our business and they managed the capital raise itself. We were really fortunate to have had the benefit of their collective experience and guidance right from the start.”
