A new blood test that checks whether a calf has received sufficient antibodies from the colostrum has won a major industry award.
ImmnuIGY Bovine IgG from global animal health firm Bimeda was named winner of the Royal Dairy Innovation Award at the recent Dairy-Tech event.
The easy to conduct novel blood test directly measures IgG levels using a lateral flow device in just 10 minutes.
Calves receiving insufficient, high-quality colostrum in the correct timeframe will suffer from Failure of Passive Transfer (FPT).
They have been shown to be more susceptible to disease and poorer performance in terms of daily live weight gains.
Farms which routinely monitor IgG status have been shown to suffer significantly lower rates of FPT, highlighting the importance of monitoring.
Head judge and vice chairman of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers, Tim Downes, said: “This year’s winner was seen as a new step forward in measuring the success of rearing healthy calves.
"The judges were impressed with the potential benefits for the dairy industry by allowing testing of colostrum intake up to 42 days old.”
Bimeda general manager Mark Cokayne said the firm was 'incredibly proud' to have received this award.
“We are thrilled that by using the Immunigy Bovine IgG test producers can now assess calf IgG levels with definitive direct results," he said.
"Praise is also due to our partners in this project; Synergy Farm Health, Soma Bioscience & Buitelaar Group.
"It has been a real team effort to get to this point and we are all excited about the future.”
Runners up for the award include National Milk Records (NMR) with GenoCells, which is an innovative herd management service centred exclusively around genomic testing.
Another runner up was DeLaval with DeLaval Plus, which is an online platform using an advanced level of farm management analysis to give farmers the tools to turn data into easily understood information.
