The main objective is to reduce the sanitary and economic impact of Cryptosporidium. The project will tackle a twofold approach:

1. We target to halve the number of contaminated calves in terms of prevention and consequently in terms of economic impact. In that goal, pilot farms will be disseminated across the 2 seas area. These farms will be operational demonstrators to proof and transfer good practices and usage of a detection kit within the animal production sector. Positive results from these changes will be controlled and quantified via epidemiologic and economic studies.
2. We target to accelerate the discovery of new anti-Cryptosporidium pharmaceuticals. We will propose an innovative electronic device for analysing faster potential effects of various compounds tested. We will finally conduct Market exploration on the analytical tools and technology. This transfer strategy will be focused on biotechnology and pharmaceutical corporations.

• Dissemination of 40 pilot farms across the 2 seas area used as reference site for farmers
• Create a low-cost and easy-to-use pilot in-situ parasite detection system, which can be used by farmers as well and produced by biotech companies.
• Adapt an electronic Cryptosporidium-viability monitoring micro-system, applicable as standard to pharmaceutical laboratories to rapidly characterise potentially therapeutic compounds.
• Develop market study linked to business model and strategies to transfer technologies to the end users (biotech/pharmaceutical companies)

Pathogens are not bound by national borders. Trade between farms and breeding centres can be a vector for pathogens, including Cryptosporidium, to spread far and wide. In addition, in order for the results of this project to be sustainable over time, we must be able to provide different kind of farms’ model, which can be adapted in each country. As such, we need to combine the expertise of various partners (Belgian, Dutch, English and French) on current farming strategies, in each region, to propose infectious risk management procedures, which will work in the context of their individual constraints. All pilot farms will apply elaborated detection devices. Regarding research structures involved, we will also need to combine our expertise with that of other cross-border organisations (i.e. the development of a pilot system will require both the expertise on Cryptosporidium culturing from the partners in England along with the micro-electronics expertise of the partners in France).