Veterinary Decision Support System by Rapid Bacterial Infection Detection (RAID)

ended

Development of multidrug-resistant bacteria represent an increasing threat for human and animal health. These bacteria strains are developing mainly due to the unjustified use of antibiotics both for humans and animals. That is why, from 2013 in the European Union, antibiotics can only be added to animals for treatment (not preventive!) purposes, after unambiguous diagnosis of the disease by a veterinarian. This process is beneficial for supressing antibiotic use, but results in high costs and time loss for farmers. The incontrovertible proof of bacterial infection is carried out by culturing method, which takes 24 to 72 hours and costs between 10-50 euros. Our innovation, RAID is Veterinary Decision Support System (RAID), does not require culturing and thus can detect bacterial infection within maximum 2 hours at affordable cost. We have successfully demonstrated our method with an independent veterinary examination under real conditions (TRL=7), developed a stepwise market introduction strategy: first, intensive poultry farming is targeted, as the bacterial infection is the most serious problem in this segment. Potential buyers have been identified, several of them expressed their interest to the project. We submitted a patent application about RAID method. In this phase 2 project, we aim to carry out all essential steps for market introduction: increasing the number of detectable bacteria to at least 50, increasing the reliability to at least 98%, improving and automating sample processing method, establishing a mobile RAID laboratory for satisfying the need of small farmers and veterinarians, who cannot invest to buy large devices and using it for demonstration purposes, validating and certifying our method. We aim to refine our business plan and to obtain tangible commercial results at the end of the project, i.e. signed service contracts and purchase orders. The success of the project will promote the growth of the companies involved.