animal-health-videos
How do you diagnose African swine fever?

Dr. Liz Wagstrom, chief veterinarian with the National Pork Producers Council based in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, talks about the importance of having reliable tests for African swine fever. She says that it is critical to have a test that allows you to be comfortable that a positive is truly a positive and that a negative is truly a negative, especially when dealing with a disease that has the trade and animal health impacts of African swine fever.


Diagnostics Help to Reduce the Use of Livestock Antibiotics

George Charbonneau, veterinarian with the South West Ontario Veterinary Services, says that with the implementation of the veterinary feed directive rule, veterinarians will increasingly use diagnostics to enable the prudent use of antimicrobials.


Diagnostics Used to Monitor Trichomoniasis (Trich) in Bulls

Dustin Oedekoven, state veterinarian for South Dakota, talks about the signs of Trichomoniasis (Trich) in a herd and what strategies South Dakota has in place to prevent positive cattle from entering the state. A combination of PCR tests and regulations have helped reduce the incidence of Trich in South Dakota.


Diagnostic Use Increases in Asia, Mexico & South America

Joe Connor, practicing veterinarian with Carthage Veterinary Services, talks about the increased use of laboratory diagnostics in Asia, Mexico, and South America, and how confidence in diagnostic results helps him give clients the correct answers.


Carthage Veterinary Service Installs Diagnostic Lab for Routine Testing

Bill Hollis, practicing veterinarian with Carthage Veterinary Services, talks about how their new lab allows their veterinarians to more quickly get diagnostic test results, and be more effective.


Swine Health Information Center uses Diagnostics to prepare for emerging diseases

Paul Sundberg, executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, talks about the focus of the center on emerging diseases and how diagnostics can assist preparations for the next outbreak.


Advantages of risk-based surveillance testing for meat producers

Dr. Bert Urlings, Director, Quality Assurance, discusses Vion Food Group’s use of Applied Biosystems zoonotic disease detection solutions to help ensure food safety and production efficiency. He explains how the use of antibody testing and food chain information as an objective control method provides Vion with a risk-based approach to helping farmers improve their biosecurity efforts.


Efficient MAP control in goat herds

Dr. Esthel Frederic, Consulting Veterinarian of GDS18, France, talks about the development of an efficient MAP test protocol for accurate ruminant herd diagnosis. The team at GDS 18 conducted a study in which they compared results of diagnostic testing on individual goats to testing of environmental samples (pooled - bulk milk, milk filter and swab socks sampled on the same herds).


Detection of MAP shedding in young calves

MAP infection in cattle occurs mainly the first weeks of life. For efficient control of paratuberculosis in an infected herd, it is therefore important to prevent new infections among calves. Dr. Jean-Yves Houtain of ARSIA, Belgium, talks about a recent study using a highly sensitive detection method to assess the risk factors for MAP infections in very young calves.


Importance of Paratuberculosis (Johne’s Disease) control

Paratuberculosis (Johne’s disease) can have a severe impact on the health of cattle and ruminant herds, which can contribute to significant economic losses. Dr. Petr Kralik of the Veterinary Research Institute, Czech Republic, explains how diagnostic tools can be used to control the disease through the early identification of paratuberculosis levels in animal herds.


Responding to the challenge of an animal disease outbreak

Dr. Peter Kirkland, Officer in Charge of the Virology Laboratory at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute (EMAI), discusses Australia's containment of an equine influenza (EI) outbreak, and the advantages of using real-time PCR technology in diagnostic test labs.


Safer, reliable method for Trichinella meat inspections

Jakob Decker of the Trichinella state laboratory located at Germany’s largest slaughterhouse, in Gütersloh, discusses the implementation of the PrioCHECK™ Trichinella AAD solution in the Gütersloh lab and the many advantages it offers over the traditional pepsin digestion method.


The important role diagnostics plays amid rising attention on antibiotics

Antimicrobials do not work on viral diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), yet a viral infection can compromise a pig’s immune system and make the animal susceptible to bacterial infections. Dr. Lisa Becton of the National Pork Board explains how veterinarians are helping to limit antimicrobial use by utilizing diagnostics to guide their treatment of specific animal health issues.


PRRS: the role diagnostics plays in managing herd health and economics

Dr. Derald Holtkamp, associate professor of veterinary medicine at Iowa State University, talks about the devastating economic effects of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), and the important role diagnostics plays in controlling the virus. Dr. Holtkamp estimates that the North American swine industry loses approximately 9.9 million pigs per year to the PRRS virus, at an annual cost of $664 million.


Diagnostics playing a critical role in the new norm of emerging diseases

Diagnostics is the most important element in detecting and differentiating emerging diseases from endemic and domestic diseases, says Matt Cochran, DVM, of Texas A&M University. The new norm is emerging diseases, says Cochran, and he advocates an early-warning system for disease detection. Diagnostic test results are a big part of this system, as they provide confirmation and differentiation data as feedback to programs.


What role does diagnostics play in the swine industry?

Bill Hollis, DVM, of Carthage Veterinary Service, explains the requirements for diagnosis of swine diseases, including PRRS. Many swine diseases, including porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), have symptoms in common that "look" the same, making the diseases difficult to diagnose. Veterinarians therefore regularly rely on diagnostics to help identify the specific disease that a producer is dealing with on the farm.


Emerging strains of PRRS can be virulent

Dr. Michael Murtaugh of the University of Minnesota shares insights on how emerging virulent strains of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus can cause waves of disease, and how diagnostics plays a role in identifying these developing viruses. "We do not know exactly how these happen, but the genetic changes have to involve mutation and recombination, and the consequences are bad," says Murtaugh.


Swine oral fluid testing is an efficient diagnostic tool

Dr. Jeff Zimmerman, professor at Iowa State University, discusses swine oral fluids and the emerging role they are playing within diagnostic testing. Oral fluid testing is being used more frequently around the globe for surveillance purposes, to prove negativity, and for economical vaccination strategies. According to Dr. Zimmerman, oral fluid testing will continue to expand as producers need to be more proactive in controlling diseases.


Using real-time swine biosurveillance diagnostics to make herd health decisions

The veterinary diagnostic laboratory team at Iowa State University plays a tremendous role in livestock health surveillance and leverages real-time diagnostic information to help producers make decisions about disease management within their herds. Dr. Roger Main of Iowa State University discusses swine biosurveillance and explains how ante mortem swine diagnostic testing has evolved to play a significant role in swine practice.


Benefits of diagnostic testing for the pork production chain

Dr. Dave Pyburn, vice president, science and technology, National Pork Board USA, talks about the need for proper diagnostics for optimal swine health management. He argues that health management is not possible without diagnostic testing.


Advantages of the new PrioCHECK Trichinella AAD kit

Patrik Buholzer, product manager for Thermo Fisher Scientific, highlights the advantages of the PrioCHECK™ Trichinella AAD Kit. The assay is a safer, cleaner, and reliable alternative to the current alternative digestion method for the detection of Trichinella larvae in pig meat.


Benefits of risk-based surveillance for Trichinella

An interview with Dr. Mabel Ribicich of the veterinary faculty at the University of Buenos Aires, about the application of risk-based surveillance using the PrioCHECK™Trichinella Antibody ELISA Kit in holdings with negligible risk in Trichinella-endemic regions.


Trichinella control in Denmark and the advantage of veterinary testing

Prof. Lis Alban, chief scientist for the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, talks about the advantages of Trichinella testing in a risk-based surveillance system, and the importance of collaboration between veterinarians and the diagnostic laboratory.


Importance of Trichinella diagnostics (ICT 2015)

Dr. Alvin Gajadhar, current president of the ICT, talks about the importance and development of Trichinella diagnostics. Animals do not show signs when infected with Trichinella, but they can infect humans—which makes Trichinella testing very critical. 


Importance of diagnostic testing in Trichinella control (ICT 2015)

An interview with Dr. Ray Gamble of the National Academy of Sciences (US) about the importance of diagnostic testing in Trichinella control, and the use of serology testing as a simple and cost-effective method for Trichinella testing on the farm and at slaughter.


Demystifying USDA licensure and its importance to diagnostic testing

Mary Anne Williams, senior manager, Regulatory Affairs (Animal Health), Thermo Fisher Scientific, discusses the process for obtaining a USDA license, the importance of using USDA-licensed diagnostic kits, and the benefits to labs, health officials, and veterinarians.


Standardizing testing workflows & the benefits to veterinary diagnostics

Bruce L. Ackey, DVM, director of the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, discusses the potential variables associated with farm animal diagnostic testing and how the standardization of testing workflows can help benefit labs and their clients.