International Partners Accelerate Detection of Poultry Disease

Traditional testing methods are time consuming and poultry companies risk further outbreak of diseases as they await results. A collaboration project across borders has developed a portable device that can detect pathogens and viruses in less than an hour.

Rapid detection of pathogens and viruses is vital in the poultry industry to avoid outbreaks of salmonella, campylobacter and bird flu that are a risk to consumer health and may lead to expensive losses for producers.

Farmers and food producers currently rely on traditional test methods, which involves sending samples to a laboratory for analysis and waiting for up to two days for the results. Due to the speed at which infectious diseases spread, the delay may have critical consequences.

Thanks to the fast result, farmers and food producers will soon have the opportunity to contain and eliminate undesirable microorganisms from a much earlier stage

Fast analysis on location

The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) teamed up with partners in Sweden, France, Germany and Italy to develop a solution. Together, they came up with Vetpod, a portable device that can detect pathogens and viruses in poultry flocks or fresh meat processing lines in less than an hour.

Vetpod contains a specially designed chip, so throat or rectal samples from the animals can be analysed on location. Thanks to the fast result, farmers and food producers will soon have the opportunity to contain and eliminate undesirable microorganisms from a much earlier stage.

Developed as part of the EU-funded VIVALDI project, Vetpod is expected to become commercially available in the near future.