Controlling Transboundary and Emerging Diseases
We at Zoetis strive to be First to Know and Fast to Market in helping to combat transboundary and emerging diseases that threaten livestock and companion animals as well as those zoonotic diseases that can also transmit between animals and people. These include emerging new infectious diseases and ever-present disease threats.
When an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus killed millions of piglets in the U.S. in 2013, Zoetis developed and received a conditional license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a vaccine in only 14 months to help pork producers and swine veterinarians protect healthy pregnant female pigs from this devastating disease.
Zoetis was swift to help farmers control Schmallenberg virus with authorization in the European Union in 2014 of our Zulvac® SBV vaccine. First identified in late 2011 in Germany and subsequently in eight countries, the virus infects cattle, sheep and goats causing fever, diarrhea, and reduced milk yield in adult animals. In pregnant animals, it can infect the nervous system of the fetus, causing brain damage and skeletal defects.
Read more about Zoetis’ capabilities to combat transboundary and emerging diseases here.
Outbreaks of infectious diseases like these are happening with increasing frequency due to the encroachment of suburban communities into woodlands, climate change, and increasing global travel and trade. Up to 20 percent of food production animals are lost to disease annually with an associated cost of $120 billion from 1995 to 2008, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Preventing and controlling infectious diseases is important to protect animal and human health; to help assure a safe, sustainable supply of animal protein; and to safeguard the livelihoods of farmers.
