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Team:WPI-Worcester/Tour2
From 2014.igem.org
Why did we choose our project?
The Longitude Prize 2014. What is it?
"Longitude Prize 2014 is a challenge with a 10 million pound prize fund to help solve one of the greatest issues of our time."(Longitude Prize, 2014)
Antibiotic resistance in the wild is a problem.
"In order to tackle growing levels of antimicrobial resistance, the challenge set for the Longitude Prize is to create a cost-effective, accurate, rapid and easy-to-use test for bacterial infections that will allow health professionals worldwide to administer the right antibiotics at the right time." (Longitude Prize, 2014)
Livestock are given approximately 4 times more antibiotics than humans
Antibiotic resistant bacteria in livestock can easily transfer to humans through meat.
There are over 1 billion goats in the world
And are most commonly used as livestock in developing countries where a cheap and effective disease diagnostic tool is desperately needed. For our project, we chose to focus on a disease called Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis Virus, or CAEV. Its prevalence may be seen in this map.
