Mastaplex’s product provides dairy farmers with mastitis diagnosis and antibiotic treatment recommendations and is currently being sold to farmers in New Zealand and Australia via vets.
Bovine Mastitis is an inflammation of the udder caused by one of several bacteria. It results in reduced milk yield and quality for the afflicted cow (a significant cost to the farmer). Globally, Bovine Mastitis is the most common disease in dairy cattle and is one of the most costly and challenging diseases in animal health today (reportedly costing the dairy industry US$35bn annually).
Currently, mastitis is best treated through the administration of antibiotics at a veterinarian’s recommendation. In practice, however, the herd is often mass treated with a general antibiotic by the farmer without knowledge of the type of bacteria causing the infection. This practice only achieves a 50-60% initial cure rate with the remaining cows requiring subsequent additional antibiotic treatments.
Mastaplex’s product enables accurate diagnosis and antibiotic treatment suggestions for mastitis. It is available on-farm at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional laboratory tests. The technology identifies whether an infection is present, determines which bacteria strain is causing the infection and provides an estimate of the bacteria’s sensitivity to various different antibiotics. This allows the farmer to effectively treat mastitis on-farm with much higher cure rates and without the need to go to a vet.
With ~70% of antibiotics globally used in animal health, farmers and veterinarians are facing regulatory, industry and consumer pressure on their use. Mastitis is one of the major antibiotic use areas and is an area where antibiotics are often used irresponsibly, compounding the problem of antibiotic resistance. Mastaplex enables farmers to use antibiotics responsibly by using better-targeted, narrower-spectrum antibiotics the first time around.
Mastaplex is currently seeking up to $950,000 of new equity investment. Mastaplex has now raised $720,000 and is seeking the remaining ~$230,000. Funds will be used for marketing and sales, business development, product development, increasing production capability as well as the completion of in-market clinical trials.
For more information on Mastaplex or its current capital raise, please contact Lachlan on +64 21 029 26400 or lachlan@pacificchannel.com
