Device cuts time in germ scares

Inventor Professor Lou Reinisch says the portable bacterial spore detector is the first of its type. Picture / Simon Baker

A revolutionary new device developed at Canterbury University is set to make the world safer from bioterrorism.

The hand-held device, developed by the university's commercial arm Canterprise, with backing from venture capital firms, can detect anthrax and other dangerous bacterial spores in substances within minutes, compared with the three days it usually takes to fully analyse a sample in a laboratory.

Prototypes of the device, which looks like a torch, have proven to be 99 per cent accurate. Worldwide interest in the product is already high and orders have been taken for delivery in 2007.

"Let's say in the case of a white powder incident, where there is concern that a powder that has fallen out of an envelope could be anthrax, then this technology could be placed over the powder and would determine within minutes whether it is anthrax or something harmless," said Neville Jordan, chairman of Veritide, which will market the device.

Anthrax is considered a serious terrorist threat after a spate of attempts to unleash the deadly disease in the United States after September 11, 2001. White powder scares have also occurred in New Zealand.

The inventor of the device, Professor Lou Reinisch, said the portable bacterial spore detector was the first of its type.

"It's a device that is clever enough and accurate enough that it really takes a big crunch out of the bioterrorists and people who put powder into envelopes and send them through the postal system," Professor Reinisch said.

"There are some reasonable technologies available to identify chemicals in chemical spills. There is no accepted technology that is available that can identify biological samples quickly. It's not confused by surrounding materials."

Veritide project manager Andrew Rudge said another big advantage of the device was savings in time and money.

Large-scale evacuations in the likes of commercial buildings, airports and postal centres around the world could be avoided by determining if a substance is a hoax.

"Even a one-hour delay at an airport, with the whole airport shutting down, can be a catastrophe not just at that airport, but across a whole country."

The device was being marketed at "first-response teams" around the world.

"Federal agencies, fire departments, police departments, airports, ports, even commercial buildings, subways - any services where the public are and where a potential threat could be," Mr Rudge said.

"We've spoken to several groups of first responders about this and their response has been very positive. Their questions have been like 'How quickly can you get us one of these?' "

It is expected that tens of thousands of devices may be produced.

Work on final production is under way.