Nicolle van Heerden

Kithunt

Bachelor of Design Product Design Ecology and Sustainability Food Health and wellbeing Innovation Social Innovation Sustainability

The test kit features nylon material on the exterior and interior as well as mesh, to act as a separate compartment for the solution test tubes.

AD22 Award

Sustainability award

For excellence in sustainable design

A brodifacoum test kit for pig hunters.

My aim for this project was to create a sustainable, cost-effective, time-saving way for Pig Hunters in areas such as Northland to be able to test their hunting game, for Brodifacoum traces before consumption. Brodifacoum is the go-to warfarin used by conservationists in order to decrease and eradicate the predator populations of Rats, stoats, and possums. Hunters and locals in areas that use Brodifacoum are worried that they could be consuming hunting game that contains it. This could increase their risks of potential health issues in the long run, due to Brodifacoum lingering in the livers of animals and people for months or even years at a time. Ark in the Park rangers brought this issue to my attention and helped guide me in designing this test kit. I heavily relied on empathetic co-designing, and sustainable and ecological design approaches when designing the Kithunt Brodifacoum test kit.

The test kit comes with 50 LFD test strips, 5 solution test tubes, 1 reusable test strip holder and an user instruction manual. All contents of the test kit can be purchased separately when refills are required.

kithunt test kits were designed to be small enough to fit into hunters backpacks without taking up too much space. Black nylon was specifically chosen so that dirt and stains from hunting trips won't necessarily show when dirty.

Users will insert a LFD test strip into the reusable test strip holder, making sure to only touch the black section to prevent oil and dirt contamination from hands. Once inserted 4 drops of the solution containing a piece of the pigs liver, will be dropped onto the creme section next to the black section. It will take about 15 minutes for the results to show. Similarly to Covid RAT tests; 1 line means negative and 2 lines means positive.

My aim for this project was to create a sustainable, cost-effective, time-saving way for Pig Hunters in areas such as Northland to be able to test their hunting game, for brodifacoum traces before consumption. Brodifacoum is the go-to warfarin used by conservationists in order to decrease and eradicate the predator populations of rats, stoats, and possums. Hunters and locals in areas that use brodifacoum are worried that they could be consuming hunting game that contains it. This could increase their risks of potential health issues in the long run, due to Brodifacoum lingering in the livers of animals and people for months or even years at a time. Ark in the Park rangers brought this issue to my attention and helped guide me in designing this test kit. I heavily relied on empathetic co-designing, and sustainable and ecological design approaches when designing the Kithunt Brodifacoum test kit. The test kit includes 50 LFD test strips, 6 sealed solution test tubes with dropper lids, an instruction manual, and a re-usable LFD test strip holder for easier management; all of which can be purchased separately when refills are needed. I hope that the Kithunt test kit makes hunting in New Zealand safer for hunters, giving them the option to be safe if they wish. In making hunting safer I hope it’ll increase the hunting activity of invasive species such as these pigs, deer, and goats so that conservationists won’t need to rely so heavily on poisons and contract hunters. This will allow New Zealand to continue with its successful conservation efforts of predator eradication, without any negative impacts on its people.