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ANTIBIOTICS CONTROL FOR ALL

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - TEST4ALL (ANTIBIOTICS CONTROL FOR ALL)

Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2021-03-31

The World Health Organization considers the antibiotic resistance as one of the three greatest threats to human health for the next decades.
The great benefit of antibiotics in animal production makes the farm sector the major user of these medicines creating a high risk to find contaminated food with antibiotic residues. Since the EU has strong regulations in this aspect, this can cause negative consequences to the dairy industry and public health: 1. High economical loses due to milk destruction by incineration and penalties; 2. Big technological problems to companies manufacturing fermented foods; 3. Public health issues related to antibiotic resistances.
According to EU legislation all food operators are responsible for food safety. Unfortunately, the majority of food controls are done at food plants or laboratories. So, there are limited opportunities for the milk sector to manage food risks on-site and in real-time.
ZEULAB has developed a novel antibiotic residues detection system. Test4all is the first automatic system that makes the results available in real time. These unique features allow farmers to do easy self-controls before supplying the milk and to dairies to screen antibiotics during the milk transport in trucks or upon arrival at the plant. Test4all is based on a small portable device that makes an easy biological test. This device is managed by a smartphone App connected to a secure internet cloud. So, farmers and dairies will be always connected, having their results at anytime and anywhere.
There are 600.000 farmers and 12.000 milk plants in Europe. This solution will highly benefit the dairy sector and society by:
• Saving high costs on management of non-compliance milk (transport, cross contamination, destruction)
• Increasing the milk production yield at farms by a strict control of treated animals.
• Avoiding penalties to farmers.
• Reducing food risks and increasing the food quality
• Helping to fight against antibiotic resistance.

The overall objectives of the project were:
• Miniaturize a portable device, create a smartphone App to manage the system and design an internet secure network to access results in real time.
• Design the first individual assay adapted to non-laboratory users.
• Validate and certificate the system by international reference organizations.
• Scale-up the industrial production of the system
• Develop a dissemination and exploitation plan to promote the benefits of Test4all
ZEULAB has reached the following results during the whole project period:
• A small and portable Comet4 device affordable for any user.
• A ready-to-use single test adapted to non-laboratory users.
• A smartphone App (Android and iOS) to manage the Test4all device with the smartphone and to connect with the Test4all cloud.
• An internet cloud to access to all information in real-time by registered users.
• An Internal validation of Test4all system to report the system performance.
• 4 external studies were carried on to confirm the competitiveness of the system and fulfill the legislation: 1) AOAC International Certification to asses all functionalities of the system to meet the market requirements 2) ILVO validation to verify that the system performance fulfill the national legislations 3) MQD comparative study to evaluate the new solution in comparison with main competitors. 4) ITAINNOVA evaluation to demonstrate that the system accomplishes the directives of CE conformity.
• Scale-up of the industrial production. 1) The test production line was designed and manufactured. 2) All processes for manufacturing of Comet4 were designed and implemented
• Website www.test4all.net a specific logo, marketing materials, presentations, videos, etc. were created for dissemination activities.
• Individual meetings, webinars, demos, events and publications were carried on.
• A market study with end-users in different European countries were carried on.
Test4all is the new generation of antibiotics control designed to do on-site analysis at farms and dairy trucks. It is the first system that performs the assay automatically and makes the results available interconnecting farmers and dairies in real-time.

Milk farms and dairy plants are closely linked. Each dairy plant collects milk from farmers on daily basis. The agreement that regulates this relationship includes in most cases the standards to control the antibiotic residues. So, farmers and dairies need to cooperate in order to guarantee milk free of antibiotics. Test4all is the first system that connects in real-time the whole milk chain, from small farmers in rural areas to big modern dairies.

The implementation of Test4all solution in the sector represents important economic benefits for all milk operators:
Farmers will optimize the production yields by saving money with introduction of treated animals on time to milking when results are negative for that cow. Dairy farmers will also be able to verify the milk quality before delivery and so, to avoid economical and legal penalties from milk processors or authorities.
Dairies will save time and money if truck drivers and farmers send information of test results in real-time before the arrival to the plant. The decisions will be faster and better. Any contaminated truck could be controlled on time. Moreover, an optimum management of antibiotics residues could save a lot of money to cheese makers. Globally, Quality Managers will have available full traceability of daily milk collected. Data analytics based on big data tools will enable to optimize the collection process and to improve the milk production practices.

Test4all innovation will also contribute to other benefits to society:
The prevention of unexpected milk contamination in a first stage will contribute to preserve the environment by avoiding processes of incineration or transportation.
The impact of antibiotics excreted to the environment due to the poor animal metabolism contaminates soil and water. The use of Test4all at farms will contribute to responsible use of antibiotics.
The opportunity to make data analytics based on big data tools will help to increase the milk safety.
A cooperative work between farmers and dairies by sharing information in real-time. This new way of working will make more sustainable the milk production.

The project has also help to ZEULAB to:
• Speed up the development of Test4all solution.
• Have a new generation of product ready for the market
• Get the confidence of the market by the support of the international certifications.
• Have the resources to disseminate the new concept to the main stakeholders.
Comet4 and Eclipse
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