VLIIFIncubated Joins Hands to Combat Aflatoxin Contamination in Dairy

Ludhiana 02 September 2026- The Veterinary and Livestock Innovation and Incubation Foundation (VLIIF) of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, incubated Frontrunner Farms India P. Ltd. (FFIN) through a strategic collaboration with the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar is working to develop a field-validate microbial interventions against aflatoxin contamination in dairy feed and milk.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Dr. Debasis Dash, Director, ILS, and Mr. Pankaj Navani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, FFIN, in the presence of  Dr. R. S. Sethi, Dean, College of Animal Biotechnology and Director, VLIIF along with Dr. Nicholas Tomkins and the FFIN team. The collaboration focuses on microbial competitive exclusion which uses indigenous, non-toxigenic microbial isolates to suppress toxin-producing Aspergillus flavus in feed and stored grain before toxin formation. FFIN will conduct field trials across its Punjab dairy network and evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions through milk-quality outcomes.
Dr. J. P. S. Gill, Vice Chancellor congratulated the teams from ILS, FFIN and VLIIF and said that the initiative represents an important convergence of academic research, biotechnology, entrepreneurship and field-level dairy innovation. He appreciated VLIIF’s role in facilitating industry-academia partnerships and emphasized that such collaborations are essential for translating scientific innovations into practical solutions for the livestock and dairy sector.
Dr. R. S. Sethi said the partnership combines ILS’s scientific capabilities with FFIN’s field network under the VLIIF incubation ecosystem. Dr Sethi noted that validating these technologies under commercial farming conditions will strengthen both the startup ecosystem and Vet Varsity’s commitment to biotechnology-led innovation for safer feed and milk.
Dr. Debasis Dash said that ILS is an autonomous institute under the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. Under the agreement, ILS will lead the discovery and characterisation of microbial isolates using its microbial culture collection and molecular detection capabilities, including PCR-based identification of aflatoxin B1 biosynthetic genes.