Public Funding for Dicam Technology LTD.

There is increasing pressure within the poultry industry to improve biosecurity measures & cleanliness in primary production; advanced diagnostics for early disease detection are high on the agenda. In response to this specific industry need, this project will develop an integrated on-farm early-warning bacterial sensing system for Intensive Poultry Production Systems, targeting key foodborne disease pathogens prevalent in poultry meat: Campylobacter, E.coli & Salmonella. The proposed innovation integrating sample collection, chemical-free enrichment, acousto-optic detection & seamless user presentation, is enabled only by the inter-disciplinary convergence of leading agri-scientists & engineers with poultry producers & industry informers. The overarching objective is to enable earlier decision making by producers to instigate preventative control measures that minimise downstream cross-contamination, thereby decreasing foodborne disease incidence within the supply chain.

To design and develop embedded systems and peripherals for control and monitoring applications making best use of available communications and microprocessor technologies and to embed knowledge of communications and associated software technologies.

Consortium members have worked in real-time monitoring and data capture for 15 years. It has shown that significant productivity gains can be made through monitoring. The key barrier to adoption is the lack of easy access to processed information allowing users to quickly benefit. The project's objective is to make real-time monitoring an accessible decision support tool for pig farmers and others by a) reducing the cost of on-farm measurement and data transfer; b) providing a powerful platform for data exchange; c) developing innovative statistical analysis techniques; and d) creating a range of delivery and presentation applications. The project will make innovative use of cloud computing and mobile applications and allow third party developers to provide applications. The project will propose a commercial vehicle and business model for onward exploitation of outcomes.