We are closer here in the United States to obtain ProteqFlu and Australia with its current problem with Influenza is going to be able to use the vaccine. This is good real good.

Now I know what many of my regular readers are thinking…Dr. Dan why are you excited about a vaccine. Well let me tell you the technology used in this vaccine by Merial is the same technology used in the West Nile Virus vaccine. It is a recombinant DNA technology virus using Canary Pox virus as the vector.

So what does this mean for you… it means you have a vaccine that works and one with less reactions. Here is the study done by Merial - avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/ajvr.68.2.213 I know, I know a study done by the company that makes the vaccine can be a little well you know… biased. SO I did a search for a few others…. and they all showed very good efficacy in fighting off influenza in the horse.

One in particular showed a group of ponies vaccinated with one strain of virus challenged with another genetic shift strain and the ponies at the most had a slight nasal discharge that lasted for one day while the control group became quite ill. One of the first times that there actually was an instance in cross reactivity with a different strain.

You see influenza in people mutates every year in the horse it mutates every 10 years or so, this is called genetic shift of the influenza strains. The last mutation was the 2003 Wisconsin strain, which is the strain suspected (99% gentically similar) to be causing all the havoc in Australia. The last one before that I beleive was the 1997 Kentucky Strain and before that was the 1993 Kentucky Strain, so it is possible that the horse flu has now shifted to an every 5 year genetic shift - if that is the case we should be expecting a genetic shift in the next year or two. SO this vaccine with the prospect of it actually protecting horses with less reactions is very exciting and promising. Lets see what it can do for the Australians and there current problem.

For more information on this check out The Horse they have been doing a great job covering the story in Australia.

Here are a few stories from them…

www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=10459&nID=6
www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=10462&nID=6
www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=10441&nID=6

With all the use over there I will certainly be paying close attention to how effective it is. I have high hopes for Proteqflu as a new generation of vaccine. One that actually works has a long lasting duration of immunity and has less reactions.

, , , ,