A team of researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, developed a new rapid test that detects infections in commercial farm animals. The move comes in response to the growing threat of deadly outbreaks in global animal agriculture..The test, in its prototype stage, performed well in trials in the detection of devastating diarrheal infection in hogs. It can be adapted to test for other pathogens, and in other animals..Created by biochemist Yingfu Li and engineer Leyla Soleymani and their colleagues, the test uses a saliva sample to identify the chemical markers of infection..The animal test, once it becomes widely available, is hoped to be a critical tool for identifying and controlling outbreaks in agricultural settings..Researchers hope the technology will limit the likelihood of zoonotic transmission of infection..Disease outbreaks frequently require entire herds to be culled, sometimes with severe economic consequences..Canada is a global leader in pork production with 7,600 farms and 14 million hogs..The research was published in the German science journal Angewandte Chemie. The influential research journal has recognized the work as “very important.” .The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada funded the research..Creating such technology is part of the goals within McMaster’s Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats..The aptamer-based test was designed to be portable, accurate, and fast, allowing animal care professionals and other caretakers to identify, isolate and treat infected animals efficiently..After consultation with subject matter experts, it was determined the first animal test would be designed to detect porcine epidemic diarrhea; a serious and fast-spreading viral infection in hogs..It was challenging for researchers to create a test that would work with pig saliva.."The challenge here was that the samples we get from animal swabs are much less pure than what we get from humans,” Soleymani said. “You can’t tell a pig to rinse its mouth before swabbing it, so we had to adapt our process to accommodate these challenges.”
