I think you are misunderstanding how the BNP is being used in this project. It's my understanding that out is being used in complement with PCR. PCR identifies bacteria at the genetic level, but doesn't distinguish between living and not. BNP is likely being used to identify live bacteria and PCR thereafter to zero in the ID to the genetic level.

This is not an effort to validate the BNP. If there was one, it would have been done with the first batch ordered.