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Zoetis UK Statement Following The Equine Flu Outbreak - For Veterinary Surgeons and Nurses

WALTON OAKS, SURREY – 8 February 2019 Zoetis UK Ltd. 

Following recent news alerting the public to an outbreak of Equine Influenza (flu) steps have been taken by the British Horseracing Association (BHA) to provide guidance on events and how to prevent further risk of the disease. What is clear so far is;

Zoetis is aware of possible customer concerns about the current Equine Influenza outbreak and knowing more about the available vaccines. The Zoetis vaccinations are Equip® Flu and Equip® Flu and Tetanus vaccines (Equip F or Equip FT) and we would like to share the following information with veterinary professionals:

  • In the UK to date we have had no cases of flu reported in horses vaccinated with Equip F or Equip FT. However, in the present flu outbreak it is not clear if any of the current influenza vaccines will provide complete clinical protection against the mutated strain.
  • Equip F and Equip FT are both indicated for reduction in clinical signs caused by Equine Influenza, including Florida Clade 1 strains.
  • Cross protection has been demonstrated by virulent challenge for representative strains of Florida Clade 1 (Paillot et al 2008, Bryant et al 2010) and Clade 2 (Paillot et al 2015). 
  • In addition, vaccination with Equip F stimulated a flu specific cell-mediated immune response to a Clade 1 strain which was detectable for up to one year after the third vaccination in primary course (Paillot et al 2015).

Zoetis is confident that the Equip range continues to be effective against its licensed indications. For more information please see the Animal Health Trust (AHT) website and the updated release from the British Equestrian Federation (BEF):

https://www.aht.org.uk/news/statement-on-equine-influenza-outbreaks-in-vaccinated-horses

https://www.bef.co.uk/News-Detail.aspx?news=equine-flu-outbreak

About Zoetis

Zoetis is the leading animal health company, dedicated to supporting its customers and their businesses. Building on more than 60 years of experience in animal health, Zoetis discovers, develops, manufactures and markets veterinary vaccines and medicines, complemented by diagnostic products, genetic tests, biodevices and a range of services. Zoetis serves veterinarians, livestock producers and people who raise and care for farm and companion animals with sales of its products in more than 100 countries. In 2017, the company generated annual revenue of $5.3 billion with approximately 9,000 employees. For more information, visit www.zoetis.com.

References

Paillot R et al.  (2008) Protection, systemic IFNγ, and antibody responses induced by an ISCOM-based vaccine against a recent equine influenza virus in its natural host. Vet. Res. (2008) 39:21

Bryant et al (2010) Comparison of two modern vaccines and previous influenza infection against challenge with an equine influenza virus from the Australian 2007 outbreak. Vet. Res. (2010) 41:19

Paillot R et al.  (2015) ISCOM-based equine influenza vaccine: Duration of immunity and randomised clinical trials to assess an accelerated schedule of immunisation and efficacy. Trials in Vaccinology, 4 (2015) 61–70 

Equip® F is a suspension for injection containing Equine influenza virus inactivated strains of A/equine/Newmarket/77 (H7N7) >1.2 log10 HAI, A/equine/Borlange/91 (H3N8) > 2.1 log10 HAI and A/equine/Kentucky/98 (H3N8) > 2.4 log10 HAI. POM-V. 

Equip® FT is a suspension for injection containing Equine influenza virus inactivated strains of A/equine/Newmarket/77 (H7N7) >1.2 log10 HAI, A/equine/Borlange/91 (H3N8) > 2.1 log10 HAI, A/equine/Kentucky/98 (H3N8) > 2.4 log10 HAI and Immunopurified Tetanus Toxoid > 70 IU/ml. POM-V.0

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