Scientists with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine hope to make a new diagnostic method for identifying Brachyspira more generally available in 2019.
Scientists with the University of Saskatchewan, on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc with support from Elanco Animal Health, are working to identify the most effective antimicrobials for treating specific strains of Brachyspira.
Dr. Joe Rubin, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, says the work was prompted by the emergence of a novel species of Brachyspira, Brachyspira hampsonii in the late 2000s, which revealed the diagnostic challenges associated with Brachyspira and the limitations of existing diagnostic techniques.
Dr. Joe Rubin-University of Saskatchewan:
In line with that we realized that we needed methods that would allow us to give producers and swine practitioners laboratory evidence to help them select the most appropriate antimicrobials to use for treating affected herds and that was really what led to this study.
The overall goal was to develop some diagnostic techniques and we actually have been able to develop a new susceptibility test method which has worked really well in our lab and we've actually been able to start piloting offering the availability of this test to a small number of practitioners in western Canada.
Source : Farmscape