Aware that many horse owners will be worried about the outbreak of equine flu and want to know more about available vaccines, Zoetis has issued a statement for veterinary professionals about its vaccines, Equip Flu and Equip Flu and Tetanus (Equip F or Equip FT).

The company says that so far, it has had no cases of flu reported in horses vaccinated with Equip F or Equip FT in the UK. However, it cautions that in the present flu outbreak it is not clear if any of the current influenza vaccines will provide complete clinical protection against the mutated strain.

In addition, Zoetis highlights that: 

  • Equip F and Equip FT are both indicated for reduction in clinical signs caused by Equine Influenza, including Florida Clade 1 strains.

  • Cross protection has been demonstrated by virulent challenge for representative strains of Florida Clade 1 (Paillot et al 20081, Bryant et al 20102) and Clade 2 (Paillot et al 20153).

  • Vaccination with Equip F stimulated a flu specific cell-mediated immune response to a Clade 1 strain which was detectable for up to one year after the third vaccination in primary course (Paillot et al 20153).

Zoetis says it is confident that the Equip range continues to be effective against its licensed indications.

If you have further questions about the vaccines, ring 0845 300 8034 and choose option 1 to speak to Zoetis' technical team.

References

  1. Paillot R et al. (2008) Protection, systemic IFNγ, and antibody responses induced by an ISCOM-based vaccine against a recent equine influenza virus in its natural host. Vet. Res. (2008) 39:21
  2. Bryant et al (2010) Comparison of two modern vaccines and previous influenza infection against challenge with an equine influenza virus from the Australian 2007 outbreak. Vet. Res. (2010) 41:19
  3. Paillot R et al.  (2015) ISCOM-based equine influenza vaccine: Duration of immunity and randomised clinical trials to assess an accelerated schedule of immunisation and efficacy.Trials in Vaccinology, 4 (2015) 61–70

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