Human Practices
As the only iGEM team from New Zealand this year, we wanted to make our project New Zealand focused and put human practices at the core of our project. Once deciding to work on a diagnostic test, we looked at diseases affecting our home country of New Zealand. Johne’s disease stood out to us as it has a massive impact on our agricultural sector with major impacts on the animal’s welfare, farmers, and the economy. The predominant current Johne’s disease tests are PCR and ELISA tests. Neither of these tests were point-of-care and the results can take up to a week to return to the farmers. This leads to uncertainty for the farmer whilst infected animals spread the infectious disease to the rest of the herd causing more infections downstream. We wanted to change this for our end users.
Canterbury Grasslands LTD
The first part of our research involved looking at the difficulties in managing Johne’s disease. To do this, we reached out to our platinum partner Canterbury Grasslands LTD; an industry leading dairy farm in the South Island of New Zealand. From our meetings with Grasslands, we learned of the massive impact that Johne’s disease has, particularly on animal welfare and businesses. It was Grasslands who outlined the need for a rapid diagnosis of Johne’s disease and led us to focus on a rapid confirmation test design using blood. This trip was very insightful for us and inspired our team to strive to develop a solution for a disease that has a real and personal impact in our community.
ANZCO Foods
We also reached out to our other platinum partner ANZCO foods, a sheep and beef business operating in New Zealand. From talking to them we learned the impact of Johne’s disease in a non-dairy business. The key take home messages from this session were the effects Johne’s can have throughout the animal’s life, from lost production to premature death. It was also a great chance to connect with professionals in the sheep and beef industry and hear the impacts of research and innovation in the New Zealand agricultural sector.
Craigmore Sustainables
Our gold partner Craigmore Sustainables is a local dairy business. We reached out to them to get their insights on Johne’s disease and how it affects their cows. Our trip to Craigmore Sustainables was very informative, giving us a great snapshot into how leading dairy farms manage and combat Johne’s disease. It was great to hear firsthand about Cragimore’s commitment to animal welfare and environmental sustainability which are values that very much align with our own.
Rylib Group
We had an online discussion with our bronze partner Rylib group surrounding the implications of our design to them as farmers. They were really excited for our design and the impact that it would have on detecting and reducing cases of Johne’s disease here in Canterbury. Rylib Group also highlighted the need for more accurate screening tests following the development of our LuMOO device which was very encouraging for us and inspired us to think about the future of our project.
John Aitken and Otakaro Pathways
We were fortunate enough to connect with John Aitken of Otakaro Pathways. John is an expert on Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), which is the bacterial pathogen that causes Johne’s disease. John is the founder of Otakaro Pathways, an organisation involved in detecting MAP in humans. MAP has been implicated in causing Crohn's disease and Otakaro pathways are at the forefront of this research. Our lecture from John on MAP gave us valuable insight into the bacteria we are researching at and an was a super valuable experience for the team. It was particularly interesting to hear the history of MAP research.
Animal Welfare
We are highly motivated to develop this test as a rapid diagnosis increases the speed at which cows can be treated or euthanised. This is very important to us and we believe that we will be able to minimise the suffering animals must endure when afflicted with Johne’s disease. Furthermore, the quicker farmers can obtain a result, less shedding of MAP will occur, leading to a decrease in more animals being infected in the future.
Queenstown Research Week
We were fortunate enough to connect with John Aitken of Otakaro Pathways. John is an expert on Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), which is the bacterial pathogen that causes Johne’s disease. John is the founder of Otakaro Pathways, an organisation involved in detecting MAP in humans. MAP has been implicated in causing Crohn's disease and Otakaro pathways are at the forefront of this research. Our lecture from John on MAP gave us valuable insight into the bacteria we are researching at and an was a super valuable experience for the team. It was particularly interesting to hear the history of MAP research.
Human Practice Influence on Our Design
The design of our LuMOO test kit was largely influenced by our workshop with Canterbury Grasslands LTD. Our initial plan was a Johne’s screening test but we decided on a confirmation test due to their feedback on how long Johne’s results take to return to the farmer. Due to us deciding to do a confirmation test this allowed us to only focus on cows that are shedding MAP. Our design reflects our values of a reusable, sustainable test which is affordable for farmers. We chose a reusable design which is more costly than a single use test to reflect the value of sustainability in our community.
Ethics
In order for this research to be worthwhile, we first determined whether this project would be beneficial for not only our local community but also globally. Based on our human practice background work, we determined that identification of infection was beneficial for both businesses (as they can more quickly make a decision on how to manage the sick animal and the rest of the herd) and the animal’s welfare as they would be able to get the correct treatment or be euthanised depending on the test result. This would reduce the stress on the animal. We originally thought of using quorum sensing to detect Johne’s disease but we decided against this due to the possibility of introducing genetically modified organisms into our ecosystem and the potential for misuse.