The General Directorate of Livestock Services is still waiting for the result of the analysis of one of the two bovine brucellosis vaccines on the market, after sending a vial of the vaccine Bruceiosan51 of Laboratory Virbac Uruguay S.A.. to a reference center abroad, to find out why this vaccine generated positive animals for the disease.
In turn, the laboratory that sells this immunizer on the market also sent doses to a reference laboratory in the world, seeking to find out the origin of the problem. After detecting the first positives in an establishment that was vaccinated with the aforementioned vaccine, the MGAP carried out several investigations, but first immediately withdrew the available doses and the manufacture, marketing and use were suspended.
for the campaign of bovine brucellosis all this is a big setback”, the General Director of Livestock Services (MGAP), Dr. Diego de Freitas, ensuring that the goal was to act quickly before greater damage was generated.
Meanwhile, the investigation and follow-up of the positive animals that are emerging and it is verified that they are vaccinated with the reference vaccine, continues.
On November 18, 2021, a field test was carried out on 54 animals from the MGAP-Dilave de Tacuarembó establishment (Cardozo Peninsula) -N° DICOSE 180301879-, due to suspicions of interference of the Brucelosan51 vaccine, in the results of diagnosis of the disease.
As clarified by the MGAP, the use of vaccines, which generate a distorted diagnosis, interferes with the Sanitary Program against brucellosis, causing serious damage to the sanitary control systems carried out by the Livestock Services, through their competent agencies, and is susceptible of causing economic damage to producers.
The investigation works in that official property continue. “We repeated the bleeding 15 days later (from the first serological sampling) and it gave fewer negatives. This provides some peace of mind that the animals that have been vaccinated with Bruceiosan51 will not be positive for a long time”, explained the head of the MGAP.
The problem that was generated with this vaccine is not exclusive to Uruguay, it was also generated in other parts of the world. That is why scientific investigations must go to the end to avoid recidivism.
Bell. Regarding the campaign against bovine brucellosis that is being carried out in Uruguay, de Freitas affirmed that “it is good”, but reiterated that the problem generated by this vaccine “is a major setback. It has been a hard blow for the campaign”.
The MGAP also controlled the other vaccine that is available on the market and that is made by the “Miguel C. Rubino” Veterinary Laboratory Directorate, in this case “no problem was detected with that vaccine,” de Freitas clarified.
When a positive case of the disease appears, the official service first checks whether the animals were vaccinated with Bruceiosan51. Veterinarians, when applying the vaccine, upload the readings to the Animal Information and Registry System (SIRA), generating a valuable tool for producers, technicians and official service when tracking cases.
“An unexpected event” for Virbac Santa Elena
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The problem generated “was an unexpected event,” said the general director of Santa Elena Virbac, Dr. Eduardo Ottonelli. Weeks ago he told El País that the brucellosis vaccine with the RB51 strain “does not have to mark antibodies, it is released by the official control of the laboratory and the MGAP, all the controls required by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) are carried out. and yet, in some establishments where the epidemiological situation did not close with brucellosis, positive animals were detected”.
The company recalled lots representing 65,000 doses from the market and had been applied. If they were all batches, it was above 200,000 doses. We work “with one of the top specialists worldwide, who has experience in how to solve this type of problem.
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