ORONO, Maine — Animal and veterinary science researchers at the University of Maine will use a $500,000 grant to establish a research, testing and education center expected to advance the diagnosis, treatment and understanding of particularly problematic animal diseases.
The project, funded by a Maine Technology Asset Fund grant, will enable field-testing to establish credibility for Maine biomedical companies to commercialize newly developed, inexpensive diagnostic kits, according to a press release from UMaine.
The grant also will provide approximately seven field endoscopes for use by Maine veterinarians at farms and stables around the state. The first diagnostic kit to be field tested detects the bacteria Streptoccoccus equi within hours as opposed to the days it takes for results from a conventional test.
Strangles is a highly contagious disease that affects a horse’s lymph nodes in its upper respiratory tract, according to the web site www.horses-and-horse-information.com. The name was coined due to the strangling breathing sounds made by affected horses.
The development of the new field test kits represents an advancement in combating the contagious and sometimes fatal disease, according to Robert Causey, a veterinarian and associate professor in the Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences.
Once researchers collect enough data in pilot testing to establish reliability and effec-tiveness of the field test kits, the kits can be manufactured for sale and distribution throughout Maine, the nation and the world, Causey said in the press release.
“There is no doubt that the market for this is potentially global,” Causey said. “Wherever there are horses, there is this disease. No one has ever tried to do this before. This puts Maine right in the front of strangles research.”
The project will require renovations at the J.F. Witter Teaching and Research Center to create an animal handling area for disease diagnosis, an equine isolation area, and a technology transfer center classroom with video-endoscopy equipment. The facility will be used for testing and training faculty, Maine veterinarians and students from both UMaine and from the Tufts University veterinary medicine school.
Causey said it is important that students be involved in the project at all levels, from caring for horses to working in labs and with endoscopy equipment, the press release stated.
“From animal agriculture to biochemistry and the biomedical sciences, I think it’s all there,” he said. “The students here get exposure with large animals, and that is becoming less and less common at universities around the country. The Witter Center is helping to produce large animal veterinarians, many of whom will return to the state and that’s good for Maine agriculture, especially with a shortage of large animal veterinarians.
The project also will establish a statewide strangles surveillance program to increase protection of Maine’s 35,000 horses. Maine’s equine industry is estimated to have an economic impact of about $364 million, according to the Maine Farm Bureau.
“The purpose of the funding is to strengthen the infrastructure in Maine with the purpose of boosting the economy and bring new jobs to Maine,” Causey says. “The way we’re approaching this is two-fold. One is to strengthen Maine’s biotechnology sector, especially small, highly innovative companies, and the other is to strengthen the agricultural economy through lessening the impact of disease.”
Nationally, quicker diagnosis and timely animal isolation could save the equine industry millions of dollars if the new diagnostic protocols are effective in preventing strangles in even 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 10 million horses, he says. The sales potential could be worth $3.5 million, according to Causey, if only 1 percent of the nation’s horses are tested each year.
Causey’s research team includes veterinarian Anne Lichtenwalner, director of UMaine’s Animal Health Laboratory, James Weber, associate professor in animal sciences, and colleagues at Tufts University veterinary school and the Gluck Equine Research Center at the University of Kentucky.
Reagents for the test kits are being developed by Maine Biotechnology Services in Portland. The kits are being marketed by New Horizons Diagnostics Corp. of Maryland.