December 13, 2013

 

Merial shares economic benefit of VAXXITEK^® HVT+IBD at Avian Forum Asia

At the recently-concluded Merial Avian Forum Asia, Dr Stephane Lemiere, Avian Global Technical Director of Merial shared the cost benefit of the VAXXITEK^® HVT+IBD vaccine and how the vaccine could make a positive economic impact to the over 250 participants present.

 

Today, it is common knowledge that vaccination in poultry production is vital to protect the birds against major viral diseases, including Marek's disease, infectious bursal disease, infectious bronchitis, Newcastle disease, avian influenza, as well as bacterial diseases. Importantly, vaccination also prevents costly consequences of poor control of less acute forms of these diseases, which is at the core of Dr Lemiere's presentation.

 

Immunosuppression, as a result of poor control, could lead to the condemnation of broilers at the slaughterhouse, increased cost of medication and use of antibiotics, negative impact on growth performance and decreased meat production, which boils down to lost dollars and cents to the producer.

 

With VAXXITEK^® HVT+IBD, an immune foundation can be induced by early vaccination either in ovo, or at day-old, in the presence of maternally-derived antibodies, against Marek's disease and infectious bursal disease (IBD) - significant causes of immunosuppression. Importantly, the use of a single dose vector vaccine HVT+IBD at the hatchery offers a more controlled vaccination process than the conventional field IBD vaccination.

 

Dr Lemiere shared that the vector vaccine developed by Merial was first launched for layers in Brazil, made available in Europe afterwards and now available all over the world, including in Asia.

 

He went on to illustrate the economic benefits of the use of this vaccine in different disease challenge conditions, through trial results showing improvement in animal health, including bodyweight, uniformity, mortality; and egg production performance, including number of eggs, quality of eggs and quality of egg shells.

 

In a field trial in Mexico, the vector vaccine HVT-IBD (VAXXITEK^®) was tested in commercial layers birds, where there is a challenge of velogenic Newcastle disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza. The results show that the use of the vector vaccine HVT+IBD in commercial layers represent significant economic benefits to the egg industry.

 

Specifically, mortality and body weight improved and a significant improvement of 18.5% in flock uniformity was observed in the group vaccinated with VAXXITEK^® HVT+IBD mixed with a Rispens or Sb1 vaccine, as compared to the group vaccinated with HVT mixed with Rispens. Egg production was higher by 4.2 eggs per hen housed in the group fed VAXXITEK^® HVT+IBD mixed with Rispens.

 

In a second trial on replacement pullets in Mexico, one group was vaccinated with Vaxxitek HVT+IBD + Rispens + SB1, while another was vaccinated with HVT + Rispens + SB1. Similarly, in this trial, improved mortality, increased bodyweight and increased flock uniformity was observed for the group vaccinated with Vaxxitek HVT+IBD + Rispens + Sb1, which also improved the onset of lay and the production peak. Total egg production per hen housed increased by 4 eggs and improved egg shell quality was observed, with thicker egg shells.

 

Also in South America, trials on broilers were conducted in Colombia in field conditions in both high IBD challenge area and low IBD challenge area to determine the impact of the IBD vector vaccine application on broiler chicken performance.

 

Results from the trial in the high IBD challenge area show that the group vaccinated with VAXXITEK^® HVT+IBD showed improved mortality and a decrease in condemnation. Increase in daily weight gain by 2 grams and a corresponding increase in the final weight of the broilers resulted in increased profits. In addition, improved feed conversion from 1.881 to 1.831 and the decrease in age at slaughter from 43 to 42 days contributed towards reduction in feed costs. Lastly, clinical IBD cases decreased from 4.33% to 0.19% and medication costs per kilogramme fell.

 

Dr Lemiere then presented the results in dollars and cents, which worked out to be an increase of US$0.08 in profit per bird and a US$0.033 increase in profit per kilogramme. The eventual increase in total earnings amounted to US$3.11 million over a 10-month period.

 

In a similar trial done in an area of low IBD field challenge in Colombia, the trial reveals improved production including feed conversion, bodyweight and age at slaughter; and improved sanitary situation that was demonstrated by reduced cost of medication and lower incidence of IBD challenges as a result of good bursal health.

 

In economic terms, the use of VAXXITEK^® resulted in a US$0.035 increase in profit per bird and a US$0.014 increase in profit per kilogramme liveweight, culminating in an increase in total earnings of US$299,194 over a six-month period.

 

 

This first edition of Merial Avian Forum in Asia, which took place in Bangkok during 3-4 September brought together over 250 partners, distributors, customers and staff from over 20 countries, including China, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea and Japan.