Farmscape for September 24, 2020

The CEO of Prairie Diagnostic Services says high-throughput genomic sequencing is helping to revolutionise the identification of the pathogens that cause disease.
In the past the use of genetic testing in veterinary diagnostic labs has been limited however in recent years the tide has turned and the evolution of these tests has enabled them to be used in routine diagnostics.
Dr. Yanyun Huang, the Chief Executive Officer and an Anatomic Pathologist with Prairie Diagnostic Services, says an umbrella of genomic methods called high-throughput sequencing offers a number of advantages.

Clip-Dr. Yanyun Huang-Prairie Diagnostic Services:
High-throughput sequencing has a potential as so-called one for all test because it can detect or reveal all the genes or genetic information in a given sample.
For example, if we put a piece of pig tissue into the sequencer, it can detect the pig DNA and RNA and, on the other hand it can also detect all the bacteria DNA, all the virus DNA and RNA so in one sample you have all of the genic information in there.
As well you have some genes, then the sequencer can detect that.
And the new platforms of these sequencers can be relatively quick, at least as quick as the current diagnostics methods that we are using but some are very quick and can generate results in minutes or hours.

Dr. Huang notes some of the new sequencing platforms can be portable with some sequencers as small as a jump drive that can literally be plugged into a laptop computer and deployed to the field.
He points out, it was this type of sequencing that was used to identify the virus responsible for COVID-19.
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Bruce Cochrane.

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