Scientists at the Royal Veterinary College, contributing to a programme to tackle some of the most harmful and widespread endemic diseases that commonly affect farmed animals in the UK, have developed a severity estimation calculator for post-weaning…

A Europe-wide survey has found that speed and accuracy are the key features that farm animal veterinary surgeons and farmers want from diagnostic tests

More than 334 individuals from 8 countries were asked about their current usage and knowledge of…

Novartis Animal Health has announced the results of a survey of dairy and beef farmers which found that 39% of those who found Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) present in their herd did not then go on to test for persistently infected (PI) animals.

Any calf…

Zoetis has released new surveillance results which show that Mycoplasma bovis is becoming an increasingly significant pneumonia pathogen in cattle¹.

In more than 2,500 samples submitted by vets for analysis during 2014, 45% were positive, compared with…

A new study carried out by scientists from The Pirbright Institute and Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, has concluded that pre-clinical diagnosis could be key to helping control the transmission of foot…

A consortium of seven academics has been awarded a £1.75 million grant to understand how better diagnostics can encourage responsible antibiotic use in animals.

The award, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) working in partnership…

The Pirbright Institute has developed a novel sampling method which it says can detect the presence of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus from samples in the farm environment, even when susceptible animals are not showing clinical signs.

The new methods…

PBD Biotech has announced that a new trial has shown that Johne’s disease can now be detected reliably in the blood of day-old calves for the first time using a new Actiphage diagnostic system.

The trial, which was conducted by a UK-French team…

Dr Ben Swift from Royal Veterinary College and Dr Cath Rees from Nottingham University have been off to Buckingham Palace to collect the Royal Dairy Innovation Award for a bovine tuberculosis test they developed together.

The test, which enables the…

Mossman Farming, a dairy farm on the west Welsh coast which has been stricken by bovine TB, has become the first to gain permission to trial PBD Biotech’s rapid Actiphage blood test for Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis). 

PBD Biotech says the Actiphage…

A new study published in Scientific Reports has found that machine learning has the potential to improve veterinary surgeons’ ability to diagnose herd mastitis origins accurately and reduce mastitis levels on dairy farms.

The study, which was led by…

A new study, led by the Royal Veterinary College, has determined that low-cost thermal imaging devices show minimal difference in effectiveness of detecting lameness in dairy cattle when compared to more expensive devices.

The researchers say the effectiveness…

A team at Liverpool John Moores University has developed Early Evidence Kits to help with the collection of dog DNA from attacked livestock so that irresponsible dog owners can be held accountable. 

According to the NFU, last year farm animals worth an estimated…

CVS Farm reports that its project to improve the use of diagnostic testing of respiratory disease in calves has increased the use of nasopharyngeal swabbing by vets on farm by almost 100% in under two years.

The project, which launched in September 2022…