Posted: October 27, 2009 at 10:24 am
By Cindy Zimmerman
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. (BIVI) has closed a deal with Pfizer to acquire a significant portion of the Fort Dodge Animal Health business. The acquisition, which includes products in the U.S., Australia, Canada and South Africa, as well as two manufacturing and research facilities located in Fort Dodge, Iowa, significantly increases the size of Boehringer Ingelheim’s companion animal and cattle portfolios and strengthens the company’s position as a leading vaccine supplier.
“We’ll be expanding our business significantly, in fact, doubling our sales in the United States,” said BIVI president George Heidgerken. “The product assets we’ve acquired from Fort Dodge are a broad range of strong brands in the cattle vaccine business. This is part of our long term strategy to improve our product offerings and our capabilities for the U.S. cattle producers and the U.S. cattle market.”
The cattle vaccines included in the acquisition include the Triangle®, Pyramid®, and Presponse® vaccine lines. Pharmaceutical products being acquired include Cydectin® (moxidectin) for cattle and sheep as well as Polyflex® (ampicillin sodium). The dairy portfolio includes the key brands Today® and Tomorrow®.
Listen to or download an interview with George Heidgerken here:
Posted: October 21, 2009 at 7:59 pm
By Cindy Zimmerman
A new Pfizer Animal Health was unveiled last week as Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth, including its subsidiary Fort Dodge Animal Health, was completed.
The acquisition of many of Fort Dodge’s U.S. products allows Pfizer Animal Health to greatly diversify its U.S. portfolio, as well as broaden its offering in all animal health segments. Pfizer Animal Health now offers an enhanced portfolio in beef, dairy, and companion animals, as well as a redefined product line for swine, equine and poultry.
In the beef and dairy animal category, Pfizer is adding FACTREL® (gonadorelin hydrochloride) and the pioneer line of SYNOVEX® implants to its current cattle portfolio that includes DRAXXIN® (tulathromycin), DECTOMAX®, EXCEDE® (ceftiofur crystalline free acid), EXCENEL® (ceftiofur hydrochloride), BOVI-SHIELD ® GOLD, LUTALYSE® (dinoprost tromethamine), ORBESEAL®, and SPECTRAMAST® (ceftiofur hydrochloride). Pfizer Animal Genetics also continues to explore opportunities to apply genomics technology to livestock health and management solutions.
Here is our next installment in a series of online Dairy Producer Short Courses from our sponsor, Fort Dodge Animal Health.
Our topic this week is BVD VACCINE: “PRIMING” IMMUNE RESPONSE.
Fort Dodge Animal Health’s Mark van der List, DVM, technical services consultant, explains some of the current research suggesting you can get a better vaccine response by leading a pre-breeding modified-live with a dose of killed vaccine during the dry period.
WHEN TYPE II BVD EMERGED in 1993, killing half the cows it infected in some herds, it reminded all of us about the importance of vaccinating to help prevent BVD outbreaks. Today we’ve entered a new phase of BVD control, one aimed at preventing clinical disease, as well as stopping the virus by preventing Persistent Infection.
It is commonly thought killed vaccines have been pretty effective in limiting death, abortion and other losses, while modified-lives may have some additional advantages in preventing PIs. By using a killed vaccine like TRIANGLE® followed by a modified-live vaccine like PYRAMID,® a producer has a convenient, effective program to break the BVD cycle.
Posted: August 30, 2009 at 9:40 pm
By Cindy Zimmerman
In the largest dairy producing area of the top dairy state, it was no surprise that dairy was the number one topic addressed during a visit by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to Modesto, California last week on his Rural Tour.
Vilsack was joined at the event by California Congressman Dennis Cardoza, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan and California Secretary of Agriculture, A. G. Kawamura. Together they listened to the concerns of nearly 400 frustrated dairy producers imploring for help to stem the losses that threaten their livelihood.
“I’d like to thank you for all you’ve done so far, but it isn’t enough,” said Linda Lopes, president of the California Dairy Women. “We need the support price to be higher, we need it to be extended longer, and we need it to be floored. Because right now all of us are surviving on our equity and if this price doesn’t come up and stay up for a long time, the next time there won’t be any equity to borrow against and that will be the end of the dairy industry in California.”
Vilsack outlined what USDA has done so far to help producers, including export subsidies, increased federal purchases for nutrition programs and raising the support price for dairy products. The secretary said he wants to do more but he has to wait until Congress is back in session. “The problem is that we are now facing the beginning of a new fiscal year,” Vilsack said. “It’s not a simple thing to do what you have asked me to do. I want to do it, I want to help. We are going to try and work through the process.”
Vilsack also talked about the formation of a 15 member dairy industry advisory committee to help come up with solutions to the industry crisis, “to try to figure out what will be better than what we have today.”
Listen to some of the comments and questions from the California Rural Tour in this Milking Parlor podcast sponsored by Fort Dodge Animal Health:
Here is our next installment in a series of online Dairy Producer Short Courses from our sponsor, Fort Dodge Animal Health.
Our topic this week is BVD: AVOIDING PERSISTENT INFECTION.
Never had a PI in your dairy? Good to hear, says Mark van der List, DVM, Fort Dodge Animal Health senior veterinary consultant. You’ve probably never had a house fi re either, yet that shouldn’t convince you to drop your homeowner’s insurance. Here’s how to stay PI-free.
IF YOU CAN SAY your herd is free of persistent BVD infection, you should be congratulated — but cautious. Uncontrolled BVD costs:
■ Reproductive losses such as early embryonic death, abortions, birth defects and congenitally infected calves — those infected in the womb — which are more likely to succumb to calfhood diseases.
■ Increased rates of mastitis, metritis, pneumonia and other diseases caused by suppression of the immune system.
■ Reduced calf and heifer performance, leading to higher death loss and greater risk of early culling.
Ongoing vaccination using a vaccine labeled to prevent PIs, like PYRAMID 5 or 10, is an essential part of the control program. Vaccinating 30 days before breeding optimizes the cow’s immunity during the critical 30 to 120 days of gestation when the risk for PI development is greatest.
Posted: August 27, 2009 at 9:37 am
By Cindy Zimmerman
This edition of the Milking Parlor podcast focuses on what is being done on the national level to address the current dairy industry crisis. From congressional actions to USDA to the dairy industry itself, we hear from Congressman John Boccieri, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, University of Wisconsin Ag Economist Dr. Bruce Jones and National Milk Producers Federation president Jerry Kozak.
Thanks to Fort Dodge Animal Health for sponsorship of this regular monthly podcast for dairy industry professionals. We encourage your feedback, comments and questions to provide input for future editions of the program.
Here is our next installment in a series of online Dairy Producer Short Courses from our sponsor, Fort Dodge Animal Health.
Our topic this week is BVD Vaccination: Staying One Jump Ahead.
The BVD virus taught dairy producers not to take it for granted when it killed thousands of cows in 1993. Its ability to mutate presents a challenge when designing a vaccine to protect against all the forms of the disease, says Fort Dodge Animal Health Technical Services Consultant Mark van der List, DVM.
THE BVD VIRUS’ molecular structure creates genetic instability, which allows it to evolve quickly. Today, we know of as many as 11 Type 1s and possibly four type 2s, which have resulted from that evolution.1 2 Although Type 1B is the most common in U.S. cattle, followed by Type 2A and then Type 1A, all the implications of that diversity aren’t clear.
Both Type 1 and Type 2 can cause either acute disease or persistent infection.
There has been little or no proven correlation between the type of BVD infecting a group of cattle and the clinical effect the disease has on them, from acute to chronic to fatal.
Researchers now believe preventing persistent infection is critical to controlling BVD’s spread; however, you can’t ignore the role of circulating virus transmitted by acute cases and possibly wildlife. Some herds have been shown to maintain the disease without the presence of a PI animal for years.
Those unique aspects of the virus help explain why even biosecure, well-managed dairies may have difficulty ridding themselves of BVD. Effectively vaccinating can be difficult as well, due both to some vaccines’ insufficient cross-protection and the tendency for producers to not complete the full course of vaccinations.
We know the quest to broaden the potential ability of vaccines to protect can’t stop at just including a Type 2. Even within the same subtype, it’s important to constantly refine vaccine strains, testing their capability to cross-protect as cattle face evolving BVD strains. For example, when we developed our PYRAMID line of vaccines,we weeded through the hundreds of strains now commonly identified to choose the two we believe offer the most potential to cross-react with the broadest range of wild BVD. That breadth helps keep us one jump ahead of the virus’ next change.
You can find a series of Dairy Producer Short Courses from our sponsor, Fort Dodge Animal Health, online. I’m going to feature some summaries of them here for you.
In this first one the topic is BRSV (Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus) which Fort Dodge calls the “stealth disease” of dairies.
BRSV typically hits young calves hardest. Its microscopic lung lesions stimulate the system to release the same chemical that causes your nasal passages to swell in response to a cold — which similarly swells the lung lining and traps body fluid until, in effect, the calf drowns. Even when calves escape that fate, BRSV may suppress their immune system and leave enough tissue damage to set up the ideal environment for bacteria like Pasteurella and Mannheimia to finish them off.
Fort Dodge offers Pyramid, a one-dose option for BRSV protection. You can read more about this disease in their full short course publication (pdf).
Our latest sponsor here on World Dairy Diary, Ft. Dodge Animal Health, has announced that it has inventory of its PYRAMID® 10 vaccine. This is the one that will help producers protect their cattle from major bovine diseases.
PYRAMID 10 is a highly effective, single-dose vaccine that provides protection against 10 respiratory and reproductive bovine diseases, including infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), bovine virus diarrhea (BVD) types 1 and 2, parainfluenza type 3 (PI3), bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) and five strains of leptospirosis. Not only does PYRAMID 10 offer the added convenience of a combination vaccine in a single injection, it utilizes MetaStim®, the Fort Dodge Animal Health proprietary adjuvant system.
“MetaStim makes the difference,” says Gary Robertson, bovine biological marketing manager for Fort Dodge Animal Health. “MetaStim facilitates uniform distribution of the vaccine virus to the immune system in a highly concentrated and efficient manner.”
Robertson says the company has aggressively ramped up production of the vaccine after initial supplies were depleted last fall due to high demand in the marketplace. “Fort Dodge Animal Health has a long-standing commitment to bringing safe, effective animal health solutions to the market,” Robertson explains. “We are pleased supplies of PYRAMID 10 are now available. Since its introduction, the vaccine has become an important tool in helping dairy producers and veterinarians better manage the health of their herds for greater production.”
Last week we introduced you to our newest sponsor, Ft. Dodge Animal Health. Besides Pyramid 10 they’ve got a whole range of other products that they are very well known for so I’m listing some links to more information about their dairy products below.
In coming weeks we hope to provide interviews with Ft. Dodge Animal Health vets and others to talk about the products they have to help the dairy industry.
Vaccination/Disease Prevention
An ongoing vaccination program is critical for maintaining high performance, milk production and beef quality. Protect your investment with the complete line of respiratory and reproductive cattle vaccines from Fort Dodge Animal Health.
Parasite Control
CYDECTIN® Pour-On (moxidectin)
Control production-robbing internal and external parasites with the proven purple pour-on
Mastitis Therapy
Production +
Production + is an innovative program for today’s progressive dairies. This program offers proven products and protocols for lactating and dry cows, which improve milk production and quality year round.
Pharmaceuticals
Proven tools to help protect your investment
You have probably noticed the Fort Dodge Animal Health ad on the top of World Dairy Diary. We’re really glad that it’s there and want to welcome them as a new sponsor. In the coming months we’ll learn a lot more about them and their products.
With the support of sponsors like Fort Dodge Animal Health we’re going to continue to develop World Dairy Diary. Plans include a regular e-Newsletter and regular edition of The Milking Parlor, our podcast program.
So, let’s learn about a product from Fort Dodge Animal Health called Pyramid 10. Maybe the best way to start is with six reason to start using the product in your dairy operation: 1 Metastim Adjuvant
• Enhances protection by preserving antigen to extend the immune response
• Maximizes the animal’s response to the vaccine for greater protection
2 Demonstrated Fetal PIBVD Protection
• Confidence your future calf crop is protected from BVD infection and its
significant economic impact
3 Two BVD Strains: Singer Type 1 & 5912 Type 2
• Specifically selected for broad BVD protection
4 Single-Dose BRSV Protection
• Convenience of a one shot protocol fits into your handling procedures
and timing
5 Sub-Q or IM Administration
• Flexibility to fit your operational needs
• Compliant with industry BQA guidelines
6 Protection Against Devastating Effects of Five Lepto Serovars
• Vaccinate cows for L. canicola, L. grippo, L. hardjo, L. ictero andL. pomona
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. (BIVI) has closed a deal with Pfizer to acquire a significant portion of the Fort Dodge Animal Health business. The acquisition, which includes products in the U.S., Australia, Canada and South Africa, as well as two manufacturing and research facilities located in Fort Dodge, Iowa, significantly increases the size of Boehringer Ingelheim’s companion animal and cattle portfolios and strengthens the company’s position as a leading vaccine supplier. 
The acquisition of many of Fort Dodge’s U.S. products allows Pfizer Animal Health to greatly diversify its U.S. portfolio, as well as broaden its offering in all animal health segments. Pfizer Animal Health now offers an enhanced portfolio in beef, dairy, and companion animals, as well as a redefined product line for swine, equine and poultry.
Here is our next installment in a series of online Dairy Producer Short Courses from our sponsor, 
Vilsack was joined at the event by California Congressman Dennis Cardoza, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan and California Secretary of Agriculture, A. G. Kawamura. Together they listened to the concerns of nearly 400 frustrated dairy producers imploring for help to stem the losses that threaten their livelihood.
This edition of the Milking Parlor podcast focuses on what is being done on the national level to address the current dairy industry crisis. From congressional actions to USDA to the dairy industry itself, we hear from Congressman John Boccieri, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, University of Wisconsin Ag Economist Dr. Bruce Jones and National Milk Producers Federation president Jerry Kozak.
Our latest sponsor here on World Dairy Diary, 
Last week we introduced you to our newest sponsor, Ft. Dodge Animal Health. Besides Pyramid 10 they’ve got a whole range of other products that they are very well known for so I’m listing some links to more information about their dairy products below.