Team:Sheffield/episode6
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Professor Andrew Rycroft
Veterinary and Agricultural sectors are some of the chief stakeholders who have direct contact with antibiotics. The application of antibiotics towards non-humans is just as important if not moreso. (For more information on the Walk, please see the Talk and the Walk under global policies”.)
A BLAST of the human lipocalin-2 gene found that similar genes were also found in major livestock species. This would suggest that a device that required lipocalin-2 to function would be applicable for use in livestock. Our human practices research motivated our team to look into applications on other animals. What we found was that, excitingly, other animals do produce lipocalin.
Professor Andrew Rycroft
Professor of Clinical and Veterinary Microbiology at the Royal Veterinary College, University College London
Figure 6. Phylogeny of lipocalin-2 homologues in various livestock and pet species. The presence of these homologues in a wide variety of organisms would indicate that this system may work in many different vertebrates.
This means our device has potential application to animals, and hopefully can address the issue of misusing antibiotics in the non-human health sector. To find out if this sector actually needs our device, we went to speak to Professor Andrew Rycroft at the Royal Veterinary College.
Firstly, we were interested to know from a veterinarian point of view if one would view the misuse of antibiotics is an issue.
The misuse of antibiotics is an issue in human health. Is it also an issue in agricultural and veterinary settings?
“Yes, it is. And you really got to seperate here companion animals, dogs, cats and possibly horses.. Those kinds of companion animals, you can think of them pretty much in the same way as human patients. Because the individual animal is taken to veterinary surgeons and indeed some veterinary surgeons will prescribe antibiotics irrespective of what’s wrong with the animals. Total misprescribing of antibiotics. Because they are thought of as being harmless and relatively cheap. In some cases, but not all by any means, will prescribe these drug when they are not really needed.”
“On the farm, it is completely different. Most antibiotics are used on farms’ pigs and poultry a little bit in cattle,but not very much and not very much in sheep or goats. Primarily pigs and poultry because they are the ones that their production suffers because of infectious disease.There is difference. Vets will prescribe for the entire herd and will leave behind bottles and sometimes boxes of bottles of antibiotics. Farmers will then use those drugs and they will misuse them because they have no idea what they are doing with them..."
PROJECT INTEGRATION
We saw different perspectives in the antibiotic crisis. We were made aware of the distinction drawn between companion and farm animals. Potentially, companion animals could be end-users of our device. We also gained better understanding of antibiotic prescribing culture in veterinary practice on farms.
Device design
We asked Professor Rycroft what would make a good device for a vet. We summarised the changes that Professor Rycroft suggests for the design of our device.
Practicality for Vets
An important consideration is the ability to analyse multiple blood samples/animals at once. For some infectious diseases like leptospirosis, to detect the antibody sometimes up to 12 samples are required for detection.
Time
The device should take no longer than an hour to produce a reading.
Accuracy
The device must report an accurate result more than 80% of the time.
Portability
For use in a veterinary practice, the device needs to be relatively small and involve no more than 2-3 steps.
Cost
Each test should be under £10.
