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

Measuring Emissions from Animal Agriculture Using Genetics!

Video: Measuring Emissions from Animal Agriculture Using Genetics!

Dr. Troy Rowan sits down with CLEAR Conversations host, Tracy Sellers. Dr. Rowan was a featured speaker at the 2025 State of the Science Summit at UC Davis. The event will return next year on June 16-18, 2026, continuing its focus on advancing livestock methane research and collaborative solutions.

Rowan, now an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, grew up surrounded by cattle on his family’s Charolais operation in Iowa. His family has been farming and ranching there for more than a century — long enough for the rhythms of agriculture to get in his blood.