Award for online mastitis sensor

Hamilton-based Sensortec Ltd recently won the national agritech innovation award for development of the world's first online somatic cell count (SCC) sensor called CellSense.

The product also represents the world's first online biosensor for milking systems.

Detecting SCC is the global industry standard for identifying mastitis in cows, which is a disease responsible for billions of dollars in lost revenues annually for dairy farmers worldwide.

CellSense is activated as the milking unit is attached to an individual cow.

Approximately 30 seconds after the start of milk flow, a sample of the flowing milk stream is extracted and mixed with a reagent that interacts with the DNA of the somatic cells in the milk.