16 THE CAAR COMMUNICATOR CAAR: MOLECULAR TESTING Just as pathogens mutate, so does science advance to combat them. Sometimes we can find a cure and eliminate it; other times we devise an early-warning system to protect the herd or crop yield and thus the farm business. Sometimes all one can do is find a way to endure. Regardless of how or what, the goal remains to protect. Even with the calendar flipping over to 2024, there is still a global crisis within the poultry industry because of a devastating pandemic. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has killed and required the slaughter of hundreds of millions of domestic fowl, causing billions of dollars in damage and disrupting trade. According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the virus has affected about 70 million birds in the country, breaking a record previously set in 2015, which itself had seen some $4 billion in economic damage. Recent outbreaks in California and Alabama required the culling of nearly 700,000 birds. But while HPAI is the most visible disease affecting agriculture, other livestock and crops are in danger. According to a 2021 study presented in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [of the United States of America]), one of the world’s most-cited and comprehensive multiThe current state of global agricultural testing Using just-in-time technology to thwart the spread of pathogenic disease in ag. By Shaun Holt, Chief Executive Officer, Alveo Technologies, Inc. Harnessing the power of molecular detection in its handheld analyzer, Alveo enables rapid, actionable pathogen detection. Photo from Alveo Technologies, Inc.
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