What’s New With Your Vaccine? Advanced Technology Helps Protect Horses Like Never Before

We have long trusted vaccines to help protect horses from dangerous diseases. Today, advancement in vaccine technology helps protect horses from diseases like West Nile virus (WNV) and equine influenza.“Todays vaccines are a fundamental element of horse health care that you almost never have to think about — until it doesn’t work,” says Frank Hurtig, DVM, director, Merial Veterinary Services. “Because we’re facing significant and ongoing health care challenges, like WNV and influenza, we need to up the ante and use advanced technologies in the battle against disease.”

Until 2003, the vast majority of equine vaccines were killed, or inactivated, with just a few modified-live vaccines technologies that had been used virtually unchanged for decades.¹ When confronted by the challenge of WNV, Merial developed RECOMBITEK^®West Nile Virus vaccine using recombinant technology — technology that Merial has used to help protect dogs and cats from diseases for years. This vaccine technology helps provide fast and effective protection against equine diseases such as WNV and influenza.^2,3

“Recombinant canarypox-vectored vaccines — like RECOMBITEK Equine WNV and RECOMBITEK Equine Influenza Virus vaccines — present only the specific proteins, or antigens, needed by the horse to stimulate protective immunity to WNV and influenza,”^2,4Dr. Hurtig says. “This technology engages the complete active immune system of the horse without any unneeded parts of the pathogenic virus.^3,5,6 Plus, the canarypox virus vector does not multiply in the horse as do modified-live vaccines, including limited replication of the WNV chimera vaccine.”^6,7

Advanced technology is being used to battle some of the most debilitating disease challenges a horse might face each year. Veterinarians encourage horse owners to vaccinate for certain diseases based on the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) core vaccination guidelines, geographic area or past occurrence of the disease.