How ‘The Flying Vet’ uses groundbreaking mobile diagnostic tools, Mic and Myra automated liquid handling systems, as he flies across the outback from patient to patient.
Who is ‘The Flying Vet’?
Aussie veterinarian, Dr Campbell Costello, doesn’t just make house calls, he has the largest consulting room in the world! From his homebase in far-north Queensland, ‘The Flying Vet’ as he’s affectionately known, delivers his Outback & Airborne Veterinary Services to rural and remote communities right across Queensland, the Northern Territory, New South Wales, and South Australia. To put it into perspective, there is no other full-time private veterinary in the world covering an area bigger than the state of Texas in the USA! As a flying vet, Dr Costello visits, diagnoses, and cares for thousands of animals every year. His work not only provides vital veterinary services in areas with very limited access to pet healthcare, he’s heavily involved in servicing the livestock sector, drug-testing horses for racing, and detecting emerging threats to our biosecurity. For example, he’s raised concerns about the deadly dog disease Ehrlichiosis, or E. canis (transmitted through the brown dog tick), and helped to battle Japanese encephalitis outbreaks in Australia.
The importance of The Flying Vet’s work is not just limited to animal health education and management, it extends to public health work. The fact he is able to do diagnostic testing so quickly and efficiently, not just saves families from losing their beloved animals, it has played a part in identifying severe disease outbreaks, which if these continued to spread undetected it would be catastrophic to our food and livestock industry.
How Bio Molecular Systems Makes It Possible
As a vet that spends most of his time in the air and on the road, Dr Costello doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar clinic, instead he operates entirely out of his aeroplane or a vehicle. That’s why along with his furry co-pilots, Henry and Percy, Dr Costello has two more very important passengers – Mic and Myra.
Developed and manufactured by our team here at Bio Molecular Systems, our state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment Mic and Myra liquid handling system, allows The Flying Vet to diagnose a vast range of animal diseases faster than ever before. There’s no need for Dr Costello to send samples to labs hundreds of kilometres away; he can get these critical results in real-time (under an hour), anytime, anywhere in the field.
Mic and Myra are not just incredibly innovative veterinary and healthcare technology; for Dr Costello they are crucial lifelines in his mission to care for and ultimately protect Australia’s wildlife and livestock.
What do Mic and Myra do?
Mic:
The Mic PCR machine is a cutting-edge real-time PCR cycler designed to provide researchers with highly reliable and reproducible results. With its intuitive, plug-and-play software, users can quickly set up and begin experiments, enhancing user experience and productivity. The Mic is remarkably fast, completing runs in under 40 minutes while maintaining high assay performance, making it an efficient tool for any laboratory. Weighing only 2 kg, it is the most portable and compact qPCR machine available, ideal for small labs or researchers on the move. Additionally, Mic requires no calibration or servicing, providing a hassle-free, ready-to-use solution for consistent and precise data collection across multiple samples, runs, and instruments.
Myra:
Equipped with a built-in camera and advanced algorithms, Myra can visually comprehend and respond to its tasks, enabling precise pipetting with minimal user intervention. The system’s automatic pipette and integrated camera work together to ensure pinpoint accuracy and speed, reducing the chance of human error and increasing productivity. With user-friendly software and easy setup, Myra simplifies complex liquid handling processes, making it an essential tool for various scientific and medical research applications.
Myra’s innovative design includes pressure-based liquid level sensing to monitor the aspirate and dispense process for potential errors, enhancing reliability. The high-precision camera facilitates effortless calibration, allowing users to click to the middle of the tube image to set up the system. Myra also boasts best-in-class accuracy with deviations of less than 2% for 2μL pipetting volumes, thanks to its closed-loop axis control and optical encoders. The system’s flexible interchangeable pipette heads come pre-calibrated, eliminating the need for recalibration with each exchange. Additionally, Myra offers a vortexing function to speed up reagent mixing. Seamlessly integrated with the Mic cycler, Myra allows for a streamlined qPCR workflow from setup to analysis.
How Does The Flying Vet Use Mic and Myra
Test and Diagnose for Diseases
With the BMS Mic PCR cycler, The Flying Vet is able to test for a range of animal diseases
(bovine viral diarrhoea, footrot, tick disease, foot-and-mouth disease, Hendra, and Chlamydia in koalas), without having to send samples off to labs hundreds of kilometres away. Instead, he’s able to test dozens of samples at the same time, receiving results accurately, quickly and easily – wherever he is and no waiting days or weeks!
Mobile Capabilities
The other benefits of the Mic qPCR Cycler over many other diagnostic instruments on the market is that, if it’s moved or shaken during transit, nothing will break or need recalibrating. Mic can also withstand high temperatures, perfect for the outback or any laboratory!
Fast, Secure and Reliable Testing
Results can also be drawn from samples within an hour, meaning that even the most isolated settlement or patient can receive results fast, increasing the time to effectively treat them. By getting the results right where he is, Dr Costello is then able to decide on the best treatments possible, which is important when his next appointment could take him hundreds of kilometres away!
Mic and Myra offer everything The Flying Vet could need whether he’s up in the air or hitting the road. Anytime. Anywhere.
Want to learn more? Book a Demo!
Not only a great piece of technology for busy vets, Mic can be used in human health for detecting deadly pathogens (Covid-19), as well as detecting and diagnosing respiratory, sexual, and gastrointestinal infections.
See how the precision, performance, portability of Mic and Myra can steamline and revolutionise your research and testing, just like they do for The Flying Vet, and book a demo today.