Avian flu vaccination doesn’t mean ignoring biosecurity

When there are diseases in poultry production, the quality of the product and profitability of the company decrease. What can be done?

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Dr. Yannick Gardin, Ceva Santé Animale, spoke March 15 during the Ceva Poultry Vaccinology Summit in Barcelona. | Benjamín Ruiz
Dr. Yannick Gardin, Ceva Santé Animale, spoke March 15 during the Ceva Poultry Vaccinology Summit in Barcelona. | Benjamín Ruiz

When there are diseases in poultry production, the quality of the product and profitability of the company decrease. What can be done?

"Pathogens will continue to exist. That's why we need to improve vaccines and treatments," Dr. Yannick Gardin, Ceva Santé Animale, said March 15 during the Ceva Poultry Vaccinology Summit in Barcelona.

Prevention and treatment

Both prevention and treatment are areas where the industry can work and innovate. Or maybe use a mixture of the two. "We must invest more in research and innovation," he said.

To do this, it is essential to work on identifying pathogens, have a better knowledge of epidemiology, and understand the mechanisms of infection, pathogenicity and protection, as well as develop more tools to intervene.

Once this is accomplished, then it comes the development of new concepts, tools and models in the industry to prevent, protect and treat.

"With vaccination, protection is induced and diseases will not be seen or will be seen very little," said Gardin. In this way, chicken resistance is increased and transmission is reduced, thus there is an impact on spreading the disease. "Therefore, there is a better control."

Getting rid of dogmas

It is a different way of seeing things. That's why you have to get rid of dogmas. "It was previously believed that vaccines were a problem, as with vaccination of avian influenza and Salmonella. It is believed that by vaccinating we will forget biosecurity."

Vaccination prevents eradication, but not with recombinant vaccines. "In the case of avian influenza, routine vaccination is something that we need to understand," said Dr. Gardin. "Why kill 40 million birds if they could have been vaccinated and could have been avoided? Why not?"

He also said that there is a need to update regulations, especially regarding licenses in countries. "Normally, registration process takes 4 to 5 years in each country." If we take into account the time the product takes to be developed, when it is used in a given country, it may be 10 years, which is too much.

The good work that vaccines perform can be shown. New technology vaccines are not yet accepted in many countries. For example, the platform of the cassette concept is a simple way to adapt vaccines to new viruses or variants to provide with customized vaccines.

He also talked about updating regulations regarding trade. The fact that a whole country can not export because of a localized outbreak is not based on science.

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