Advanced Animal Diagnostics (AAD), recently received an investment of $11 million, the largest single investment in research and development to diagnose mastitis, the costliest disease for dairy producers worldwide.
The financing was led by Intersouth Partners and included Novartis Venture Funds as well as other private investors.
AAD is an innovative research and development company dedicated to bringing highly accurate, rapid animal diagnostic tests to the farm. The company’s first on-farm product will focus on improving milk production and quality by controlling mastitis, an infection of the milk-producing gland. Future products will monitor disease states, reproductive, nutritional and overall health status of production animals.
“With this investment, AAD will be able to bring to market a new generation of diagnostics technologies that will revolutionize the way farmers approach animal health, allowing them to detect and diagnose diseases in their animals more quickly and efficiently than ever before,” said Joy Parr Drach, president and CEO of AAD. “
The company expects this financing to support hiring for key positions, production and manufacturing, and on-farm economic trials of its first product line. The firm is currently seeking cooperators for those on-farm trials.
AAD technology represents a significant advance for control of mastitis because it allows early identification of infected quarters, or glands, immediately after calving, when the highest incidence of mastitis occurs. More effective and efficient mastitis diagnosis tools will also be an important resource for dairy farmers in the industry’s efforts to lower overall somatic cell counts (SCC) at the individual dairy level.
Source: Advanced Animal Diagnostics