Need a Product or service?

Livestock veterinarians in Australia have welcomed the product registration, which breaks a 20-year ‘drought’ in the availability of new antibiotics for use in animal health in that country.

Nuflor contains 300mg/mL of florfenicol, a synthetic broad-spectrum antibiotic first developed in the mid 1990s by Schering-Plough Animal Health and exclusively used in animal health throughout the world.

Nuflor LA Injection is indicated for the treatment of bacterial infections in cattle and pigs susceptible to florfenicol including bovine respiratory disease (BRD), pinkeye and footrot in cattle and swine respiratory disease (SRD) in pigs.

Robert Kelly, Schering-Plough Animal Health Market Manager for Australia, says, “It is more than 20 years since a new antimicrobial class has been approved in Australia for use in food-producing animals. Veterinarians in Australia are very positive about the availability of a completely new option for the treatment of respiratory diseases in cattle and pigs.“

Nuflor LA Injection was launched at separate events for cattle and pig veterinarians during the recent Australian Veterinary Association Annual Conference held in Cairns, Queensland. The launches were well received, with 50 of Australia’s leading cattle veterinarians and 30 pig industry vets attending.

The launch featured presentations from Larry Miller, General Manager of Schering-Plough Animal Health in Australia and New Zealand, on the development of Nuflor, and from Schering-Plough Animal Health Veterinary Adviser, Dr. Roger Marchant, who detailed the pharmacology of florfenicol.

The registration of Nuflor in Australia is particularly satisfying for Miller, who was Product Director in the United States when Nuflor was first developed and launched into that market on August 26, 1996. Since then, the product has been progressively introduced into markets around the world and is now registered in 28 countries.

Miller says, “While the farming conditions in Australia don’t closely mirror those in the United States, there is an important role for Nuflor, especially in the feedlot industry.

“Incoming feedlot cattle in the United States are typically younger, lighter animals that are heavily stressed and more predisposed to BRD. However there is still a significant opportunity for Nuflor in Australia, as any time animals are co-mingled from various sources, shipped and introduced into a new environment with new feed regimes, they are at greater risk to BRD.

“BRD imposes a big economic cost to Australia’s feedlot industry. It is estimated that there were 12,000 deaths to BRD last year, and between 45,000 to 50,000 animals are treated each year for BRD. Autumn tends to be the worst season, especially in feedlot operations, which process about 2.5 million animals a year,“ Miller says.

Schering-Plough Animal Health in Australia is planning a series of feedlot-based trials later this year to provide up-to-date local information on its performance compared with the conventional antibiotics on the market.

Kelly says, “Nuflor will be especially welcomed by pig farmers, who have been struggling to find effective therapies, or prophylactic treatments, for SRD in recent years. Some piggeries have been experiencing real problems with resistant bacteria, and had run out of options.“

Veterinarians, beef and pig producers can also take confidence from the fact that even after years of use in other countries, florfenicol remains highly effective against key pathogens associated with respiratory diseases of cattle and pigs.

For more information about Nuflor® Long Acting Injectable Solution and its use in Australia, contact Robert Kelly, Market Manager, Schering-Plough Pty. Ltd., 11 Gibbon Road, Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, 2153 Australia.
Telephone: ++61 2 9852 7229. Email: