Farms.com Home   News

Prairie Diagnostic Services Responds to Reports of Porcine Sapovirus in Canada

Prairie Diagnostic Services is now screening for Porcine Sapovirus when testing samples collected from baby pigs experiencing diarrhea.
In response to the first reports in Canada in January of Porcine Sapovirus, Prairie Diagnostic Services in Saskatoon has been working with the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Iowa State University to make a diagnostic test available in Canada. PDS CEO Dr. Yanyun Huang says the virus has been known in North America for decades but it was first implicated as causing diarrhea in pigs in the U.S. in 2019.

Quote-Dr. Yanyun Huang-Prairie Diagnostic Services:
Because we had a couple of swine practitioners reporting that they are dealing with clinical cases, I recruited clinical samples from these veterinarians so we were able to use these samples to verify that the PCR assay actually works here. We fast-tracked the offering of this test after we knew the test actually works on the clinical samples we recruited. We offered this test as a research test so we are not waiting to accumulate certain numbers of detections when we can call this test fully validated

Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Environmental Effects on Sow Fertility - Dr. Isabela Bez

Video: Environmental Effects on Sow Fertility - Dr. Isabela Bez

In this special episode celebrating International Women's Day of The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, we bring Dr. Isabela Bez, a veterinarian and PhD student in Brazil, who explains how temperature and light regimes influence sow reproductive performance. She discusses seasonal infertility, climate adaptation, and why environmental monitoring inside barns is critical for herd efficiency. The episode highlights practical management strategies to reduce reproductive losses and improve outcomes. Listen now on all major platforms. "Environmental factors are actually very important on sow reproduction, and sometimes these are the factors that producers tend to not pay attention." Meet the guest: Dr. Isabela Bez / isabela-cristina-cola%c3%a7o-bez-1753381b0 is a veterinarian and PhD student in Animal Science at Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR), Brazil. Her work focuses on swine reproduction, nutrition, and animal welfare, with strong expertise in environmental effects on sow performance. She collaborates with international farms and research groups to improve reproductive efficiency through applied science.