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Platform technology vaccines changing the game for cattle and hogs

Medgene, a South Dakota animal health company, recently received USDA licenses for platform vaccines for use in swine and cattle.

Mark Luecke, co-founder and CEO of Medgene Labs says this is a game changer for the industries.  “This is new guidelines from the USDA,” he says.  “This is allowing vaccine manufacturers that have developed platform technologies and have taken those all the way through the approval process to change the vaccines as the viruses or bacteria change out in the field.”

He tells Brownfield the ability to modify the vaccines allows for quicker and more cost-effective treatment. “We have the ability to create vaccines that are specifically targeting these viruses that are constantly evolving based on their environment,” he says.

Luecke says platform technology was used in a new vaccine, announced at World Pork Expo earlier this year, for Rotavirus-C. “That new slaughter withdrawal time is important because that allows us to get to the moms and vaccinate the moms, the sows, and the gilts for rotavirus C that they can pass that immunity on to their young,” he says.

Luecke says viruses are changing and vaccines aren’t keeping up. “Platform technologies have an ability to keep up with viruses as they’re evolving out in the field,” he says.  “We do that through diagnostic work and then create new vaccines that target specifically what’s happening in the field.”

He says the technology can also reduce the cost of production for producers. “Platform technology-based vaccines can actually help producers, whether it’s tough times or good times in the marketplace, make more money for the bottom line,” he says. “Primarily because we’re reducing the number of treats and the number of deads.”

By using platform technologies, the time it takes to get a vaccine into use is drastically reduced compared to a typically commercial vaccine (which can take several years to get developed and approved by the USDA’s Center for Veterinary Biologics). 

AUDIO: Matt Luecke, Medgene