Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RAID (Veterinary Decision Support System by Rapid Bacterial Infection Detection (RAID))
Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2021-03-31
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 per measurement. Our objective is to commercialise a Veterinary Decision Support System (RAID), which is able to detect various bacterial infections within 2 hours at affordable cost in poultry (mainly Broiler chicken) farming.
In the second reporting period of the project, we finished the development of the RAID mobile laboratory built in a vehicle. We validated the laboratory RAID method against standard cultivation measurements. We concluded that RAID is a valid diagnostic method to determine infection of chicken tissue and organ samples. In our best performing set-up, we reached 99% accuracy, which is above the targeted 98% minimum level. Furthermore, in our mobile laboratory set-up, we reached 99% accuracy, 99% sensitivity and 100% specificity for samples from poultry farms. We refined our business plan and developed the go-to-market strategy. We carried out communication and dissemination actions according to our plan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we focused on on-line activities, e.g. creation of a commercial web page (www.raidproject.eu) project video, on-line dissemination events, Social Media pages (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube).
In the day to day farming practice, a veterinarian must examine ill or deceased animals and prove the bacterial infection before applying any antibiotics. By the RAID method bacterial infection can be detected during 2 hours with more than 99% overall accuracy. The key innovation of our development is the intelligent algorithm that can separate the complicated mixed spectral signal of “bacterial fingerprints” and the software based on this algorithm. Our project will impact on the European chicken farming industry and results in safer food by less and better justified usage of antibiotics in feed stuff.