Advance warnings

Having seen the United Kingdom’s 1991 foot and mouth outbreak up close as a vet, Dr Tom Brownlie realised there were some early warning signs of the disease’s spread.

Brownlie then worked as a lecturer in epidemiology and after moving to New Zealand was employed by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) at the beginning of its Mycoplasma bovis response. Through this experience he could see that better use could be made of information already being collected from farmers in order to mount the best disease defence.

The result is Ingenum, which he founded six years ago, and was a finalist in the early stage category of the Innovation Awards at Fieldays.

It’s a veterinary data science company, which with software development and project management added to epidemiological expertise can detect up to 2400 clinical signs of disease. It’s now using an artificial intelligence (AI) platform along with connectivity and modeling algorithms to understand disease causes and make improved control suggestions.

“We know what’s going on in real time so we can do something about it,” he says.

Individual farmers aren’t identified during the process whereby companies and agencies pass on information already collected to Ingenum.

More? Visit www.ingenum.co.nz