A research team at McMaster University has developed a rapid test for porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.
It is the first of what they believe will be rapid tests for a number of animal diseases.
Veterinarians can use a portable kit, collect a sample of saliva, mix it with a reagent and then gain results from a microchip.
The team first worked to develop a rapid test for COVID and some other human diseases.
The research, done by biochemist Yingfu Li and engineer Leyla Soleymani and their colleagues, has been published in a German science journal Angewandte Chemie. It was funded by the federal government’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.
It could be a valuable tool to not only rapidly diagnose a disease, but also to limit herd depopulation to infected animals.
“There is a really clear need for this technology,” Li said. “There are many reasons why everyone – even people who don’t eat pork – should care about animal-infection surveillance.”
Co-authors on the science paper are Amanda Victorious, Zijie Zhang, Dingran Chang, Roderick Maclachlan, Richa Pandey, Jianrun Xia, Jimmy Gu and Todd Hoare.
After consulting with experts in the field the researchers chose to create their first animal test for Porcine Epidemic Diarhhea.
