American scientists came up with a quick and easy way to diagnose respiratory diseases in cattle

Researchers at Purdue University in the US   have developed a quick and easy test to diagnose a bovine respiratory infection. The new development makes it possible to identify the causative agents of pasteurellosis and histophiliasis in cattle - Pasteurella multocida, Mannheimia haemolytica and Histophilus somni.

To conduct the test, you need to take a swab from the nasal cavity of the animal using a special swab probe and place this swab in a test tube with reagents that serve as biosensors for bacteria.

In this way, it is possible to diagnose the disease in less than an hour and start treatment on time, significantly increasing the animal's chances of survival. 

The developed method showed 66.7–100% analytical sensitivity and 100% specificity, while providing 60–100% agreement with PCR results.

In the future, scientists want to further simplify the technology and use paper test strips instead of test tubes, on which the biomaterial will be applied. One strip can be used to detect multiple pathogens. 

At the same time, this method is likely to be adapted for other pathogens of infections in farm animals, as well as for the detection of pathogens in food, the researchers say.