Every year, pathogens cost the global aquaculture industry about $US6 billion.
And this is at a time when food production globally needs to jump by more than 50 percent to meet the world’s ever-growing population.
Innovative tech solutions to address the reasons behind food waste are crucial to meeting this steep goal.
Genics CEO Dr Melony Sellars developed a solution to the pathogens issue during her two-decade long career at CSIRO, using cutting-edge technology to develop an early warning system that has been shown to greatly improve efficiency at shrimp farms.
CSIRO licensed the IP for this system and Genics launched it to the global market under the Shrimp Multipath name.
Shrimp Multipath is an early-warning system that scans for 14 pathogens of commercial significance impacting prawns, helping farmers to detect these diseases and inform their stock management decisions and ensure the best possible product is provided to consumers.
Pathogens that aren’t detected early can lead to entire prawn stocks being destroyed, or can lead to surviving stock growing out slowly and smaller harvests. The Prawn Multipath system has a 24 to 48 hour turnaround, significantly quicker than current offerings.
Genics’ Prawn Multipath service is a finalist in the InnovationAus 2023 Awards for Excellence in the Food and Agritech and Translation Hero categories. You can secure your tickets to the black-tie event here.
Prawn Multipath is an all-in-one pathogen detection system for shrimp farms, and is now available to all farmers in Australia and overseas. It is now trademarked and currently services more than 40 countries around the world, with proven results.
In one trial of the technology it led to improved management decisions that helped to increase production output by $67,000 per hectare at a farm gate value. And in Ecuador, the world’s largest shrimp export, the technology led to the doubling of egg outputs in a Shrimp Multipath clients’ breeding stock.
Genics is also expanding the technology to other sectors, with an offering for pork farming in the works.
The Queensland-based company has also developed ShrimpID, a platform to link shrimp health with breeding programs, and digital phenotyping that links together physical appearance, shrimp health and genomics to secure global food production with the help of smart health and breeding.
The company says that its technology can be applied to any plant or animal species around the world, and that its long-term goal is to create the world’s most advanced pathogen detection company with integrated breeding program services for delivering global food security.
The InnovationAus 2023 Awards for Excellence are proudly supported by Investment NSW, AusIndustry, Australian Computer Society, Technology Council of Australia, Agile Digital, CSIRO, TechnologyOne, IP Australia, METS Ignited and Q-CTRL.
Protecting your great ideas with intellectual property (IP) rights can lead to lasting benefits for your growing business. IP refers to creations of the mind, such as a brand, logo, invention, design or artistic work. Head to the IP Australia website to find out more about IP, and how it might help your business.
Reserve your place at the InnovationAus Awards for Excellence black-tie dinner by clicking here.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.