Benefits

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Benefits

On-Farm PCR Benefits

Dairy producers spend considerable time and money chasing sick cows. Using Acumen reagents insight, a fresh cow surveillance protocol changes the focus from reactionary treatment of sick animals to proactive herd health management.

Bacterial Culture

Tecnology:
Traditional bacterial culture requires incubation and potential speciation.

Advantages:
Can provide indentification of a specific pathogen. Previous “gold standard.”

Disadvantages:
Specific, but very sensitive to contamination. Samples mist be collected and handled correctly. Can take 3-7 days. Many pathogens require specific tests. Expensive. Most often run off-farm requiring shipping, etc. Many samples show no growth (false negatives).

California Mastitis Test (CMT)

Technology:
Estimates the amount of DNA in milk secretions. The concentrations of DNA and white blood cells (WBCs) in milk are correlated. The CMT reagent lyses cells and exposes DNA.

Advantages:
Inexpensive, rapid and on-farm.

Disadvantages:
Non-Specific. Measures inflammation, not infection. There can be variability in scoring and interpretation. White blood cells are the Somatic Cells in SCC.

DHIA SCC

Technology:
Automated counting of somatic cells in milk.

Advantages:
More accurate that CMT. No additionalon -farm labor needed. Results available via DHIA test results.

Disadvantages:
Non-Specific. Measures inflamation, not infection. Test days may be monthly or more infrequent.
 

PCR Acumen Detection

Technology:
PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) is a fast technique used to “amplify” small segments of DNA in a sample. Specific small segments of DNA can be used to fingerprint the bacteria in a milk sample.

Advantages:
Same but an on-farm complete system that uses a PC with step-by-step guided instructions. Fast (run time is approx. 3 hours.) Acumen tests are single or dual channel. Patented milk lysis reagent provides simple low-cost DNA extraction.

Disadvantages:
Requires some on farm labor to run tests (weekly). Training provided by Acumen.
 

PCR Off Site Diagnostic Laboratory PCR

Technology:
PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) is a fast technique used to “amplify” small segments of DNA in a sample. Specific small segments of DNA can be used to fingerprint the bacteria in a milk sample.

Advantages:
Specific, will detect DNA from both live and dead bacteria, making sample handling simpler. Fast. Can usemultiplex to detect many types of bacteria in a sample.

Disadvantages:
Off Site Laboratory PCR requires sample to be shipped or brought to a laboratory that has larger, comples multiplex PCR equipment. Sample results may take 3-7 days. Dx. labs use more expensive steps to lyse the cells in the milk sample to extract the DNA. Expensive.

Michael Overstreet, Overstreet Dairy

Within a month of using Acumen Detection, we have significantly cut our somatic cell count.
 
Today, most dairies utilize the California Mastitis Test (CMT) in an on-farm culture program or send samples to the lab for analysis. CMT can be complex and considerable training is needed to ensure staff can accurately conduct and determine a negative or positive result. Lab analysis is accurate, but typically takes 10-14 days for results to return.

Acumen Detection reagents win on both counts — offering a simple, easy-to-learn, on-farm testing process, indication of positivity or negativity if specific DNA markers are present, rather than CMTs general indicators of infection.