Page 14 - AWA Vol.41-No.2

POULTRY

Zoetis Receives License for Avian Influenza Vaccine

oetis announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Z(USDA), Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB) has issued
the company a conditional license for its Avian Influenza Vaccine,
H5N2 Subtype, Killed Virus. The vaccine is labelled for use in
chickens. The conditional license was granted on the demonstra-
tion of safety, purity, and reasonable expectation of efficacy based
on serology data.
Zoetis is committed to supporting poultry producers with scien-
tific solutions for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). The
decision to vaccinate commercial poultry flocks against HPAI rests
solely with national regulatory authorities in partnership with the
poultry industry. occurred in flocks in Southeast Asia. Our readiness with this most
recent vaccine is another example of how we continue to live our
According to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Ser- purpose to nurture the world and humankind by advancing care
vice (APHIS), more than 150 million birds in the U.S. have been af- for animals, ultimately providing solutions to global animal health
fected with HPAI since February 2022, including in backyard and challenges.”
commercial flocks. A conditional license is used to meet an emer-
gency condition, limited market, local situation or other special Zoetis has a long history of developing vaccines to address avian
circumstance and is issued for a finite period of time. Conditional influenza in multiple countries. In 2016, the company received
licenses may be renewed at the discretion of the CVB. a conditional license for its H5N1 vaccine and a contract award
for the USDA’s National Veterinary Stockpile; this same vaccine
“When a new strain of HPAI was identified in the U.S. in early was first used by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2023 to help
2022, our scientists immediately began work to update our pre- protect California condors. Zoetis also holds a USDA license for
vious avian influenza vaccine,” said Mahesh Kumar, Ph.D., senior POULVAC® FLUFEND™ i AI H5N3 RG which has been available
vice president, global biologics research and development at Zo- in smaller markets outside the U.S. and was used to help protect
etis. “We first worked on HPAI vaccines in 2001-02 when outbreaks endangered birds in New Zealand in 2024. Circle 16 on enquiry card

Boire & Frères elevates Québec hatchery

performance with WingScan™ by TARGAN

nimal AgTech company TARGAN has bolstered
Aits presence in the Canadian poultry industry
through a new partnership with Boire & Frères. The
US-based manufacturer has delivered two of its auto-
mated chick feather sex identification units to Cana-
da’s largest hatchery in Québec.
Jean-Guy Robillard, General Manager, at Boire &
Frères said: “The standout improvement for us is effi-
ciency, which makes a big impact when your hatchery
is averaging at 600,000 chicks a day like ours. Before
WingScan, we manually sexed 70,000 chicks per hour,
that’s now up by more than 50% to 110,000 chicks per
hour. You can imagine the difference that makes for the anticipated more time to adjust to the new system, but
rest of our operations, and for our customers – it’s re- it really is ‘plug and play.’ The training provided by
ally a game changer.” TARGAN was fantastic, and obviously this means that
With more than half a billion birds processed to WingScan can save us an incredible amount of time
date, the WingScan System offers an unprecedented with our own staff training. What’s also been very im-
throughput of up to 160,000 chicks per hour, depend- pressive is the accuracy we’ve been recording with
ing on configuration. This speed means birds can reach our two systems; it has been over 98 percent – a sig-
the farm, food, and water faster. The AI recognition and nificantly more rigorous standard than manual sexing.”
identification means birds are handled less – offering
hatcheries enhanced animal care. Feather sexing, manual or automated, allows hatch-
eries to better meet specific weight goals for custom-
Ali Matloub, Director of Technical Sales and Business
Development for International Markets at TARGAN, ers and offers farms the ability to implement gender-
said "We are proud to partner with Boire & Frères, a specific rearing strategies. Further down the line, at
company with a long-standing reputation for deliver- the processing plants, more uniform birds can move
ing high-quality poultry to their customers. At TAR- through primary and secondary processing more effi-
GAN, we are committed to supporting Boire in their ciently with reduced risk of machine downtime and the
pursuit of excellence.” need for recalibration due to a wider margin of bird
Patrick Poulin, Boire Hatchery Director, added: “We weight and size. Circle 17 on enquiry card

12 Vol. 41 No. 2