On-farm test for PEDv under development

Mar 27, 2018

Test would offer quicker results than current lab analysis

By Kaitlynn Anderson
Staff Writer
Farms.com

A Canadian company is designing a diagnostic test to help pork producers identify whether their pigs are infected with Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv).

In partnership with Swine Innovation Porc, Aquila Diagnostic Systems is developing the tool, according to Monday’s Farmscape interview. The company will build on the technology used in its malaria tests for humans.

To conduct the PEDv test, producers would collect a sample of biological fluid from the animal and place it inside of a test tube containing primers, reagents and other materials, David Alton, chief operating officer for Aquila Diagnostic Systems, said in the interview. Then, producers would put the tube inside of a thermal cycler (also known as a PCR machine) to analyze the specimen.

If the end solution visually matches the PEDv marker supplied by the company, then the virus is present in that sample.

The test would provide a quicker and more cost-effective alternative to laboratory analysis. (The thermal cycler costs around US$5,000. After this initial investment, each individual test will cost between $5 and $20, researchers estimate.)

"Aquila's PEDv test will allow producers to get results within a few hours," Alton told Farms.com today.

In addition to screening individual animals, farmers will be able to use the diagnostic platform to examine “multiple targets for surveillance purposes,” he said.

The researchers continue to conduct testing on the product, Alton said in the Farmscape interview.

Since 2014, 107 Ontario swine operations have tested positive for PEDv, according to Ontario Pork.

Nicole Neily / GettyImages / E+ photo

Video: Four Star Pork Industry Conf - Back to Basics: Fundamentals drive vaccine performance

At a time when disease pressure continues to challenge pork production systems across the United States, vaccination remains one of the most valuable and heavily debated tools available to veterinarians and producers.

Speaking at the 2025 Four Star Pork Industry Conference in Muncie, Indiana, Dr. Daniel Gascho, veterinarian at Four Star Veterinary Service, encouraged the industry to return to fundamentals in how vaccines are selected, handled and administered across sow farms, gilt development units and grow-finish operations.

Gascho acknowledged at the outset that vaccination can quickly become a technical and sometimes tedious topic. But he said that real-world execution, not complex immunology, is where most vaccine failures occur.