When Will the '15-Minute Livestock Disease Diagnosis' Device Be Released?

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Junho] As winter migratory birds arrive and the alarm for avian influenza outbreaks is raised, attention is focusing on the commercialization of rapid diagnostic equipment that can diagnose livestock infectious diseases in just 15 minutes.

Choi Hyunjong, CEO of P&G Biomed, explained on the 21st, "We integrated a fluorescent molecule-based high-sensitivity diagnostic device with communication/GPS modules and miniaturized it to develop a portable product. Once fully commercialized, it will be possible to transmit real-time geographic information and detection values from the field to government systems, minimizing culling."

The Rural Development Administration's Agricultural Food Technology Planning and Evaluation Institute and P&G Biomed Co., Ltd. developed a diagnostic device last December that improved the detection limit by 2,000 times compared to existing rapid antigen diagnostic methods. This device completes testing on-site within 15 minutes, offering the advantage of minimizing enormous economic damage such as disease control costs including culling and reduced meat productivity. The Agricultural Food Technology Planning and Evaluation Institute invested 700 million KRW in developing this device.

However, this device has not yet been commercialized. Accordingly, during the National Assembly Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee’s audit on the 19th, criticism was directed at the Agricultural Food Technology Planning and Evaluation Institute.

Assemblyman Yoon Jaegab (Democratic Party, Haenam-Wando-Jindo) stated, "Despite the 700 million KRW budget invested by the Agricultural Food Technology Planning and Evaluation Institute to develop rapid diagnostic equipment capable of simultaneously detecting foot-and-mouth disease virus and avian influenza virus for early response to livestock quarantine in the field, there is no concrete government support, so commercialization has not been achieved."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.