No application for approval for vaccination against bluetongue yet
Published: Friday, Sep 13th 2024, 12:30
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The Agency for Therapeutic Products Swissmedic is dampening hopes of a rapid vaccination against bluetongue serotype 3. To date, no application for approval of a vaccine against has been received.
Swissmedic announced on Friday that talks were being held with the veterinary medicinal products industry. However, the authorities have no possibility of requesting such an application. The Agency for Therapeutic Products emphasized that an application for authorisation would be examined with the highest priority. Accelerated authorization procedures are possible.
Bluetongue causes severe symptoms such as fever, inflammation of the mucous membranes, edema and lameness, particularly in sheep. Other ruminants are also affected, but the disease is often milder in them.
The pathogen is a virus. There are at least 26 different serotypes of this virus, of which serotype 3 is one. The virus is transmitted by certain mosquitoes, known as midges. The disease is not dangerous for humans.
At the end of August, the disease was detected in two sheep on a farm in the Jura and in one sheep in the canton of Solothurn. These were the first confirmed infections with serotype 3.
Since then, according to the website of the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office, the authorities have identified cases of bluetongue in cattle and sheep in numerous cantons. Most of these cases involved serotype 3, but some also involved serotype 8.
According to Swissmedic, there is no approved vaccine against serotype 3 in the EU either, although Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France have now carried out vaccinations.
According to Swissmedic, there is no legal basis in Switzerland for using a vaccine that has not yet been approved.
©Keystone/SDA
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