A pharmaceutical company introduces a new vaccine to help swine combat a common virus.
Nathan Schaefer serves as professional service veterinarian for Boehringer Ingelheim. Schaefer talks to producers about Provenza, a live, attenuated Influenza A vaccine, at the 2018 Iowa Pork Congress.
?It’s a first of its kind vaccine,? Schaefer said. ?In the past, all vaccines have been killed. It?s a paradigm shift for the industry. Instead of focusing on the gilt and sow prefera, we?re now focusing on the piglet – the animals getting exposed and dealing with Influenza.?
Schaefer says Boehringer Ingelheim hopes to provide producers cross protection with this new vaccine.
?When this product was licensed, our focus was on cross protection,? Schaefer said. ?Instead of trying to have homologous protection. or a strain that matches the circulating strain of Influenza in this industry, we?re focused on cross protection. We have studies that show cross protection between modern strains versus those in our vaccine. As more viruses circulate across the industry, we?ll also have cross protection to those as well.?
Boehringer Ingelheim reports the Influenza A virus in swine (IAV-S) can affect more than 70% of growing pigs each year. The growth impacts can further lead to major economic consequences. Uncomplicated IAV-S can lead to an estimated loss of more than $3 per pig. If present with concurrent infections, such as PRRS, IAV-S can lead to a loss greater than $10 per pig.
Provenza, launched in late November, has shown positive results in swine herds across the U.S.
?Thus far, we?ve been happy with the clinical science focusing on reduction in coughing and (the) ability to start better in the nursery where they?re getting exposed to Influenza,? Schaefer said. ?We?re still working on getting some closeouts, so we expect to see some improved agile weight of gain and mortality.?
