Monday, March 18, 2013

Ceva confirms early Vectormune AI field results


    Ceva confirmed on March 14 that initial results in Egypt for Vectormune AI are positive, supporting the high hopes that the company has for its ground-breaking vector vaccine for H5 avian influenza.
    While full field results will not be available for six months, the overall feedback coming back to Ceva shows high levels of protection despite very challenging winter conditions in Egypt usually resulting in “mixed infections.”
    Yannick Gardin, director of the Innovation Strategy Department at Ceva, elaborated: “Winter is a more challenging period of time to rear chickens and keep them in good health because of climate conditions: cold, humid, variations of temperature and other such factors. This is a period where several microorganisms tend to 'combine' together with one initiating the disease and the other one 'supra infecting' the birds, for example, infectious bronchitis virus or avian influenza (H9) starts first, damaging the upper respiratory tract, and opening the door to E. coli to multiply and create infection, lesions, and mortality. Against these difficult conditions, the early signs for Vectormune AI confirm our hopes that this indeed is a breakthrough vaccine that has the potential, in the right conditions, to eradicate avian influenza in countries where it is currently endemic.”
    According to Professor Dr Mona Mehrez Aly, supervisor for the Central Administration of Foreign Agricultural Relations of Ministry of Agriculture in Cairo, avian influenza persists to be a big problem in Egypt: “We had a high mortality from avian influenza in 2006 and we want to encourage vaccination control and to control the disease, leading to the eradication of this disease. Ceva has developed a vaccine that you can use only once, which is very good in controlling avian influenza. We have carried out a lot of experiments, which have shown good results, which is why we are keen to have this vaccine.”

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