Reliable Diagnostics Important in Foreign Animal Disease Preparedness

Farmscape for January 3, 2020

The Interim CEO of Prairie Diagnostic Services says accurate reliable diagnostics are an important component in the prevention of the introduction of foreign animal diseases such as African Swine Fever.
Prairie Diagnostic Services, located at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, is a full function not for profit diagnostic laboratory co-owned by the Government of Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan.
PDS operates a fully equipped necropsy lab, microbiology and toxicology lab and clinical pathology lab which provide a full spectrum of veterinary diagnostic services for all species.
Dr. Yanyun Huang, the interim CEO of Prairie Diagnostic Services, says, while the tried and true methods of diagnosing diseases like isolation of bacteria on a plate or pathology where tissues are observed under the microscope are still relevant, new equipment and new approaches have improved the speed and reliability of the diagnosis of animal diseases.

Clip-Dr. Yanyun Huang-Prairie Diagnostic Services:
In a sense the importance of veterinary diagnostics has not changed.
What has also not changed is the need to have real people, professionals behind the test results.
However, on the other hand, we can also argue that the importance of veterinary diagnostics has increased through the years in light of the larger scale of agriculture, trade, globalization and the awareness of one health.
For example we partner with our province and some federal agencies to prepare for significant disease outbreaks like African Swine Fever.
Of course we don't hope to have the disease but we have to be ready and we need reliable diagnostic results and these are a very important part in the prevention and preparedness of outbreaks such as African Swine Fever.

Dr. Huang says new more sensitive test methods and test targets are much quicker and enhance the accuracy of diagnostics and improve our ability to identify emerging diseases.
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Bruce Cochrane.

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