IFA urge the department to do more to secure Lepto vaccines
The announcement that production of the Leptavoid-H vaccine will cease has caused major concern, with many Irish farmers now left scrambling in search of an alternative.
It comes after MSD recently announced it will cease production of its widely used Leptavoid-H vaccine, which is used by stock keepers to prevent Leptospirosis, a bacterial disease in cattle.
Leptospirosis can cause abortions, decrease fertility and reduce milk production in cattle. This bacterial disease is also zoonotic, meaning that humans can potentially contract the disease from infected animals.
'This will create a serious issue for farmers who are due to administer a lepto vaccine to their herd in the coming months... This could mean that a lot of cattle herds will lose protection from Leptospirosis if they miss their annual booster shot,' said IFA Animal Health Chair TJ Maher.
The IFA Animal Health Chair outlined that the availability of vaccines when needed is "critical" for farmers in protecting and maintaining the health, welfare and productivity of our animals while reducing antibiotic usage.
'Farmers have experienced increasing shortages of certain vaccines at critical times, and here we are with the same problem yet again... These vaccines are too important to animal and human health; we cannot have situations where these vaccines become unavailable to farmers,' he added.
Commenting on MSD's decision to end production of the vaccine, Jack O'Connor, MSD Ruminant Unit Business Director, said: 'Bovilis Leptavoid-H was developed more than 30 years ago, and while this unique vaccine has a strong safety and efficacy profile, it has always proven very difficult to produce, creating recurrent supply challenges.
"Despite multiple years of improvement and remediation efforts, we have not been able to consistently supply the market with a product that meets our strict quality standards. Therefore, we have had to make the difficult decision to discontinue the product.'
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