Agribusiness: New company's diagnostic tool takes guesswork out of mastitis

A new mastitis diagnostic tool has quickly attracted overseas interest. Photo / David White

New Zealand's agricultural sector has historically relied on strong commodity prices rather than large research and development budgets, but innovation on the farm is alive and well, reports Graham Skellern.

A newly-established south Auckland company, Farm Medix, is selling thousands of mastitis diagnostic kits and saving farmers plenty of money around the world.

Farm Medix, founded by Natasha Maguire and Leon Spurrell, launched its CheckUp Mastitis Diagnostic tool just over three months ago and has already picked up 70 clients in Australia, the US, Canada, South America and here -- including dairy processing and animal health companies and farmers with big herds.

Maguire and Spurrell, who worked for Biofilm Research Laboratories, developed a simple, accurate and low cost diagnostic kit that identifies the bacteria pathogen or bug associated with a case of mastitis.

The kit contains a high-tech petri dish divided into four sections and tests for multiple strains of bacteria from one milk sample. Each kit can complete 10 tests.

After winning the Launch NZ and Innovation Den awards at the Fieldays, Farm Medix has had approaches from potential investors and parties wanting to secure distribution rights.

Maguire says standard testing of herds and daily milk supplies gives farmers an indication of their animals' general health but the gap is the lack of information about the cause of the infections.

Rather than guessing, CheckUp is a measurement tool that produces fast results, and the farmers can then work with their vets to establish the right treatments. "Without measurement, farm-side treatment is frustrating," says Maguire. "Some cases respond, some don't and others came back as soon as treatment stops. Since the bug is not known, often the treatment is a guess, and everyone wants to reduce the use of antiobiotics.

"Our tool indicates which cases are likely to respond to treatment, which to give up on, and which do not need intervention -- in 20 per cent of cases the cow has already eradicated the pathogen herself," she says.

DairyNZ statistics show mastitis in cows costs the average dairy farmer $54,500 and the country $280 million annually in lost milk and herd treatment.

Maguire and Spurrell attended a conference in Texas in January last year and learned their kit was at the global cutting edge of strategic herd management for mastitis.

Because New Zealand is disease-free, Farm Medix can export its diagnostic kits to any parts of the world without restriction. "That's a major advantage for us," says Spurrell.