The arrival of an Explorer G3 robot is set to boost animal disease testing in the event of a biosecurity emergency.
The $580,000 high throughput diagnostic robot is the first of its kind in New Zealand and will increase testing accuracy and consistency during future biosecurity responses.
The robot is set up and in action now at the Biosecurity NZ Animal Health Laboratory.
Animal Health laboratory manager Joseph O’Keefe said the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed useful insights into how the laboratory could increase its capacity during a response.
In particular, it highlighted the need for automation.
“If an exotic disease such as foot and mouth disease (FMD) arrived here, our people could need to test some 3000 and up to 7000 samples a day.
“Automating this process will speed our delivery of results making the whole process faster for farmers, better for the wellbeing of our people and for the animals involved too.”
The Explorer G3 workstation was manufactured in Germany and is designed to test up to 7000 samples a day for antibodies to FMD and other exotic diseases.
The robot doesn’t require frequent attention or intervention, freeing up the animal health laboratory staff for other testing and providing stability throughout intense response periods.
The robot can even run tests overnight without staff present.
“Testing delays can affect our economy as antibody testing is essential for maintaining the access and security of product exports to NZ’s international markets.
“If there is an exotic disease outbreak in NZ’s animals, automation will allow us to recover faster.”
The 750kg robot took a week to set up, with each part individually delivered safely into the biosecure containment area.
Once it was assembled, the team ran it through stringent testing and calibration to ensure the tests were as accurate as the current manual process.
Now that this has been confirmed, the robot has begun day-to-day diagnostic testing, O’Keefe said.
The machine achieves its efficiency through moving test plates around.
Each plate can contain about 90 samples and the robot manages up to 40 plates at once.
Simultaneously it adds samples and different reagents, washes and incubates the test plates.
Outside of responses, the robot is used to perform antibody tests for surveillance programmes and for testing groups of animals for import or export purposes.
