The swine influenza virus is known for its ability to morph into new strains, which is why it’s difficult to develop vaccines that keep up with the ever-changing target.
Pfizer Animal Health believes its new vaccine, FluSure XP, will make it easier for researchers and hog producers to chase the latest strains of SIV.
“Our intention is to continue to update the vaccine as the market demands, protecting producers from the most prevailing strains,” Don McDermid of Pfizer’s swine veterinary services said in a news release.
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FluSure XP is Pfizer’s first update of FluSure, a vaccine that it introduced in Canada in 2003.
“Since 2003, we have seen a change in the H3N2 subtype that was circulating. As well as the appearance of a new H1N1 also … and FluSure XP covers those,” said Josee Daigneault, a vet with Pfizer Animal Health in Montreal.
Pfizer makes it clear there isn’t evidence that FluSure XP protects against H1N1, the virus that infected an Alberta hog barn and made headlines around the world.
Despite that caveat, a Manitoba vet is already using the vaccine and intends to recommend it to his clients.
“I’ve used it on one herd so far and I intend to switch some other farms to it,” said Mike Sheridan, a vet and partner with Sheridan Heuser Provis Swine Health Services in Steinbach.
The benefit of the new vaccine is its ability to fight strains of H3N2 that appeared in the mid-2000s, he said.
“It brings us a little closer to what the human side does, where they, the World Health Organization, try to match the projected seasonal flus to the vaccine,” he said.
Sheridan also likes the fact that Pfizer can rapidly alter the vaccine if a new strain of SIV becomes prevalent.
In 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a memorandum allowing manufacturers of swine influenza vaccine to update their product to combat new strains and new subtypes of the virus, without full scale efficacy and field safety studies.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency followed the USDA’s lead, adopting similar guidelines last fall.
“If we think that there are big changes in the virus that are circulating and we have evidence that the vaccine is not protective anymore … this will allow us to make adjustments faster,” said Daigneault, explaining what the regulatory change means to Pfizer.
If a new SIV strain started circulating in hog barns across Canada, Pfizer could respond with an updated version of FluSure XP in six to 12 months, Daigneault said, rather than the years required by full-scale efficacy and safety studies.
