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.
