Other Activities

Pathomilk

The RABDF is one of five partners in the three-year European project Pathomilk. As a dairy association we are only to aware of the presence of mastitis and diseases such as Johnes in the national and European herd. These pathogens provoking these diseases are present in raw milk and some, even in pasteurised milk.

The project objectives are to develop a rapid multi-pathogen analyser for detecting the most common pathogens in milk. Our role as the RABDF is to ensure that the end product is a realistic tool that farmers will be able to utilise.

If successful this tool has the potential to determine which bacteria is responsible for an infection (eg. Staph. Aureus) rapidly and allows the farmer to treat the specific disease with minimal loss of production, before the disease has time to spread. Funded by the European commission this research and development project will help improve the competitiveness of small and medium sized dairy enterprises, at the same time as safeguarding consumer health and safety.

The RABDF has also been appointed exploitation manager for the project, the organisation's ability to play a role in technology transfer and knowledge dissemination throughout the dairy supply chain gives us a unique opportunity to aid the exploitation board. The RABDF's expertise with exploiting technology and proven track record of moving quality science and technology into commercial uptake will be essential in helping to make the project a real success.

For more information visit - http://pathomilk.cric-projects.com/

RABDF recently took part in the 24 month meeting in Budapest. This two day meeting reported real progress in the project and there is a substantial evidence to support the objectives of this project could be realised in the final 12 months of the project.