A recently-approved vaccine to control post-weaning diarrhea in swine will be the first of its kind in a decade to be developed and produced in Canada, its makers report.
Coliprotec, developed by Prevtec Microbia of Ste-Hyacinthe, Que., was brought through pre-licensing serial testing at the Saskatchewan Research Council’s biosafety level 2 fermentation pilot plant, on its way to its recent Canadian Food Inspection Agency approval for commercialization, SRC said in a release Tuesday.
The SRC will produce Coliprotec in Saskatoon starting this month, making it “the first live animal vaccine in the past decade to be developed, validated, and produced in Canada,” the council said.
Read Also
U.S. livestock: Cattle prices down, hogs rise again
Live and cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange retreated for a second session, while lean hogs extended their rally….
What’s more, “we are now the only contract research organization in Canada with this type of regulatory approval to produce animal vaccines,” said SRC CEO Laurier Schramm.
Post-weaning diarrhea spreads easily in swine herds and can cause “major financial losses for a producer,” said Prevtec CEO Michel Fortin in SRC’s release. “About one pig farm in four will, at some point, be affected by the disease. It may be responsible for a mortality rate as high as 10 per cent in affected populations.”
Prevtec is a spin-off company resulting from the research that developed Coliprotec at the University of Montreal.
