It has been tested on humans. Now it's time to extend it to the animals. Tridelta Development Ltd, an Irish biotechnology company, has produced a system that will detect acute phase proteins in blood or milk of animals at an early stage of disease.
These proteins are an indication of the presence of an inflammatory process, usually a bacterial or viral infection, and can be detected before the animal shows physical signs of ill-health. Acute phase proteins are routinely used in human diagnostic medicine.
In a major coup, Tridelta has sold the animal health monitoring system to Marks & Spencer, which will use the product to test animals on its supplier farms in Britain. The advent of foot-and-mouth disease has delayed the introduction of the system but a pilot project is now imminent, according to Mr Martin Gallagher, marketing manager with Tridelta.
The screening process will provide the farmer with an early warning for a wide range of diseases such as foot-and-mouth, mastitis and pneumonia. Acute phase proteins can be detected at a very early stage of illness, often within hours of an animal becoming infected.
At present, the health status of farm animals is assessed either by the farmer or the vet and, until now, has been very limited because examination largely depends on visually evident signs of illness, according to Tridelta. These limitations can mean that diseases can spread undetected, further increasing the risk to healthy animals.
Acute phase proteins cannot be detected in normal healthy animals. However, research has shown that if animals are exposed to a bacterium or virus or put in a stressful environment, such as poor living or transport conditions, the animal produces large amounts of these proteins as a natural defence mechanism.
"We already supply the kits to pharmaceutical companies, universities and academic establishments. It's a growing business. The Marks & Spencer venture takes the technology into a whole new area, the commercial food production sector." Tridelta is a veterinary diagnostic company set up in 1996, with laboratories in Maynooth, Co Kildare, to "identify, acquire, develop and rapidly commercialise proprietary technologies that have applications in high-margin, highgrowth segments of the veterinary diagnostic market".
The company, which now employs 12 people, has licence agreements for novel products with several leading research establishments in Europe and the USA. It focuses on three main markets: academic and industrial research, mastitis and animal welfare.
Tridelta and the University of Nebraska hit the headlines earlier this year for their discovery and patenting of a new acute phase protein MAA. Produced by the udder, MAA is a highly sensitive marker of bovine mastitis. Tridelta and the university have set up a new company, TriMed Research, which will develop the therapeutic application of MAA.
"We have been very well supported in our work by Government agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and Enterprise 2000," said Mr Gallagher.
A spokeswoman for Marks & Spencer was very enthusiastic about the forthcoming collaboration which, she said, had "huge potential. We have 2,200 approved farms, producing beef, pork and milk. At present, the test, which is very simple to use, is done on blood and milk but it may be possible to use saliva in the future".
The test would provide an ongoing medical check for animals, she said. Marks & Spencer employs 60 technologists and an animal welfare officer who previously worked with the RSPCA. There are 296 Marks & Spencer stores in Britain, six in Northern Ireland and four in the Republic. Food sales have been going well in Britain and here. Marks & Spencer claims to have acquired almost 1 per cent of the State's food sales, despite the small number of outlets in the Republic and their relatively small size.
The Tridelta product will complement a range of existing food safety and quality initiatives, including DNA traceability, according to the spokeswoman.
