A TEESSIDE technology centre is at the heart of a £1.1 million project to speed up the detection of bovine TB.

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) at Wilton aims to develop a hand-held device, which will give vets an instant diagnosis from a simple on farm blood test.

Current methods can take up to a week and involve two separate veterinary visits and further laboratory analysis. The idea is to provide a speedier, accurate and cheaper method of detection, thereby limiting the spread of the disease, which saw more than 22,000 cattle slaughtered between January and August last year.

The three-year project involves the CPI working with CompanDX Ltd, Public Health England, and Sapient Sensors.

Co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board – the UK’s innovation agency – it will use CPI’s scale up expertise to develop a bespoke printed sensor.

Using Sapient Sensors sensor technology, it will detect bovine TB from “biological markers” in the blood sample.

It will provide a near instant analysis on farm, rather than the current time consuming skin test.

Today’s sensors are produced using silicon technology, but CPI will print a prototype on to plastic surfaces.

The move to plastic electronics will not only provide a rapid and accurate diagnosis, but will also be far cheaper as it is single use and disposable, with no costly repeat testing.

The consortium says that reducing the potential levels of bovine tuberculosis in the environment could help to resolve TB issues in badger populations, potentially reducing the need for badger culling.

Jon Helliwell, director of Printed Electronics at CPI, said: “The development of a low cost, disposable printed sensor will revolutionise current testing methods and is a huge step in dealing with the problems that the disease creates.”

In the past ten years, bovine TB has cost the UK taxpayer £500 million.