GAINESVILLE, Ga. — For the past four years, “bird flu” and “HPAI” have been the buzz phrases of the poultry industry. The virus has infected commercial poultry and wild birds in every state in the United States, including Puerto Rico, since this current outbreak started in 2022.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza has now spread to every continent on the planet with Australia confirming its first case of the virus on June 20. In addition to the return of the virus in the States after a quiet period, it’s clear that bird flu isn’t going away unless members of the poultry industry do something about it.
One company’s CEO believes that, in order to get a handle on the bird flu situation, there needs to be a change in the way testing for the virus is done.
Shaun Holt is the CEO of Alveo Technologies, a biotechnology company dedicated to making molecular detection and diagnostics easily accessible to help prevent and limit the spread of viruses and pathogens like bird flu.
Holt has held the CEO position for about three and a half years, in addition to being a member of the company’s Board of Directors. It was these two positions that allowed Holt and his team to restructure the company to what it is today.
“We essentially rebuilt the company from almost scratch, [including] management team, employees, the entire platform, software, hardware, the detection algorithm, [and] the positioning of the company,” Holt explained. “The technology itself can positively impact many different markets, not just what the company was originally conceived to do in human health. There’s a lot of opportunity in animal health, agriculture, bioprocessing, and things of that nature. So, when I took over, we repositioned the company as a platform.”
With the company restructured, Holt and Alveo were able to tap into an industry that could use their technology, livestock and poultry. One of their top partnerships is with Royal GD, a company based out of the Netherlands that specializes in animal health and veterinary diagnostics.
“I’m of the opinion that Royal GD is likely … especially internationally, one of the best livestock health research organizations in the world,” Holt said. “So, we partnered with Royal GD to [co-develop] a bird flu test that we’ve launched globally supporting the poultry industry.”
The Alveo Sense Poultry Avian Influenza Test, also developed in conjunction with x-Ovo, is a handheld, rapid molecular amplification test for the qualitative detection of Avian Influenza Type A viruses and differentiations of subtypes. This testing device can detect the presence of viruses in both cloacal and oropharyngeal samples from poultry with highly sensitive and specific test results in 45 minutes, according to Alveo’s website.
“The way we detect the pathogen is very elegant, but pretty simple, actually,” Holt noted. “We use electrical sensors to detect pathogens, and we use a method of amplification, which is called Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification, or the acronym LAMP for short. LAMP is very similar to PCR in terms of its accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and limit of detection. However, there’s a major difference in that you do not need to heat and cool the sample, so you don’t need thermal cycling capability.”
Traditional PCR testing costs tens of thousands of dollars, takes much longer, and involves more complicated steps compared to Alveo’s LAMP technology. Their simplified, handheld testing device makes it easy enough for anyone to use it.
“It’s very low cost, high accuracy, simple workflow, and affordable. So, livestock and animal health is a perfect market opportunity for us because the traditional players in this segment can’t match all those things: the ease of use, the cost, the accuracy, and so on and so forth,” Holt said. “And since we don’t need optics or fluorescence or any of these other crazy kinds of elements within our analyzer, we’ve been able to miniaturize that into a handheld device.”
The Alveo Sense’s ability to detect pathogens quickly and easily is exactly what the U.S. poultry industry needs as an alternative to vaccines to get some kind of handle on HPAI.
“Vaccination brings its own complexities, particularly when you talk about the United States with the difference of opinion with the layers and the broilers,” Holt noted. “But I think regardless of vaccines, you can start with better, more accurate, more affordable, decentralized molecular testing to help get out in front of this, to help stop the spread.”
Through international case studies, Alveo has been able to demonstrate the product’s capabilities and that their product can be a part of the solution.
An interesting feature of the Alveo Sense is its ability to differentiate between vaccines and the actual virus. They were able to use this feature to help a customer in Africa figure out why a vaccinated flock was experiencing a significant drop in egg production.
“They decided to just test using the Alveo analyzer, and sure enough, they detected a positive for H5 in a vaccinated flock,” Holt said. “So, that just goes to show you … vaccination or no vaccination … the value molecular diagnostics can bring.”
With the ability to detect bird flu early, poultry producers and farmers can increase biosecurity, save money, and protect their workers.
“There’s also the human health risk aspect, which is you’ve got a lot of workers in that production facility exposed to the virus,” Holt noted.
According to the CDC, the risk of the virus to the general public is low, but people who routinely come into contact with infected birds, animals, and contaminated environments are at a greater risk.
“Humans obviously can contract the virus due to exposure, but at this point, I don’t think that transmissibility has been an issue, but that could change,” Holt added.
That’s why it is important for the poultry industry to find new and innovative ways to curb the continued spread of the virus, and Alveo could be one of those ways.
“We’re seeing real momentum internationally. We are currently approved and on market in about 38 countries,” Holt said. “A lot of traction in the Middle East, in Northern Africa, parts of Europe and now in Asia. We’re really working hard to obtain our USDA license to be able to positively impact the US poultry industry. We’re pretty significantly through that process; we’ve got a few months remaining.”
Holt is hoping that the Alveo Sense can be on market in the U.S. within the next three months, just in time for the fall bird migration season.
To learn more about Alveo and the Alveo Sense, check out their website.
