October 7, 2005

Akzo Nobel's Intervet starts swine vaccine bank in Netherlands

The Dutch government recently signed a contract with Akzo Nobel's business unit Intervet, allowing the company to start a vaccine bank for Porcilis Pesti, Intervet's marker vaccine against Classical Swine Fever.

Under the agreement, 500,000 doses of the vaccine would be reserved for emergency inoculations in the event of a Classical Swine Fever outbreak in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is the first European country setting up such a vaccine bank for emergency inoculations against the disease.

During the previous major swine fever outbreak in 1997-98, 13 million pigs were destroyed in the Netherlands alone. The outbreaks were also reported in Spain, Germany, Belgium and Italy.