Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionise agriculture and food systems. It includes disease treatment delivery systems, new tools for molecular and cellular biology, the security of agricultural and food systems, new materials for pathogen detection, and environment protection.

It is feasible to introduce nanoshells and nanotubes into animal systems to seek and destroy the targeted cells. Nanoparticles are smaller than one micron and deliver drugs and genes into cells. In a few decades nanobiotechnology industries will revolutionise animal health and medicine.

The nanotechnology ‘research and development (R&D) aimed at understanding and working with – seeing, measuring and manipulating – matter at the atomic, molecular and supramolecular levels.

Nanotechnology holds the potential for early detection and eradication of a disease among animals. ‘Smart’ treatment delivery systems are activated long before macro-symptoms appear. It could be a miniature device implanted in an animal that samples saliva on a regular basis.

Long before fever develops, the integrated sensing, monitoring and controlling system detects the presence of disease. Food security and safety and aged pet population, along with heightened costs for medication and veterinary care create a need for new solutions.

The technology has the potential to provide solutions to such problems for which research and developments are necessary before making it common in veterinary medicine.

Today, antibiotics, probiotics and pharmaceuticals are delivered to animals primarily through feed or injection systems. Delivery of medicines is either provided as a preventative measure or as a treatment once the disease organism has multiplied and symptoms are evident.

The nanoscale devices detect and treat an infection, nutrient deficiency, or other health problem long before symptoms are evident at the macro-scale. This type of treatment could be targeted to the affected area.

‘Smart’ delivery systems can have multifunctional characteristics to avoid biological barriers to successful targeting and they may also be: time-controlled – spatially targeted – self-regulated – remotely regulated – pre-programmed.

It can have the capacity to monitor the effects of the delivery of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, nutrients, food supplements, bioactive compounds, probiotics, chemicals and vaccines.

In future, technological advances will make it possible to develop delivery systems (potentially using buckeyballs, nanotubes and dendrimers, etc.,) for biological and bioactive systems.

Disease diagnosis and treatment: Imagine the possibility of injecting nanoparticles into an animal and then after a week run a light over the animal’s body to activate cancer-killing agents to destroy the tumour.

Researchers at the Rice University are doing this by using nanoshells injected into the animal’s bloodstream with targeted agents applied to the nanoshells to seek out and attach to the surface receptors of cancer cells.

Illumination of the body with infrared light raises the cell temperature to about 55°C, which ‘burns’ and kills the tumour. Others have been experimenting with ‘smart’ superparamagnetic nanoparticles. These nanoparticles when injected in the bloodstream target tumour receptor cells. These nanoparticles are made from iron oxides that when subjected to a magnetic field enhances the ability of the nanoparticles to locate tumour cells.

Identity preservation: Identity preservation (IP) is a system that creates increased value by providing consumers with information about the practices and activities used in producing an agricultural product.

Quality assurance, safety and security of such products could be significantly improved through the IP at the nanoscale. Nanoscale IP has the potential to continuously track and record the history of a particular agricultural product.

The future of meat industry may depend on an ability to track all stages in the life of the product, including the birth of the animal, its medical history, and its movements between the ranch, the slaughterhouse and the meat-packing plant, right through to the consumer’s table.

Animal breeding: Management of breeding is an expensive and time consuming problem for dairy farmers. One solution that is currently being studied is a nanotube implanted under the skin to provide real time measurement of changes in the level of estradiol in the blood.

The nanotubes are used as a means of tracking oestrus in animals because these tubes have the capacity to bind and detect the estradiol antibody at the time of oestrus by near infrared fluorescence. The signal from this sensor will be incorporated as a part of a central monitoring and control system to actuate breeding.

Ethical issues: As with any new technology, we have an ethical responsibility to apply it wisely and to recognise that there are potential unforeseen risks. One major importance will be a thoughtful, thorough and balanced assessment of the benefits and risks of nanotechnologies. The public should be educated through television, the internet, and point-of sale informative bulletins that explain the added-value and increased safety and food security the nanotechnology provides.

In addition to improving contaminant detection and the security of tracking systems, the use of nanotechnology can increase the efficiency of animal agriculture and food systems processes and help to reduce the use of antibiotics, thus increasing food safety for the consumer.