Farm-Scape, Episode 2100

Merial Canada reports demand for its newly released vaccine which protects baby pigs from the ravages of Post-weaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome has been brisk in Canada.

Last month Merial Canada was granted a special permit for the import of Circovac, a vaccine which is administered to the sow to protect her offspring against Porcine Circovirus Type 2, the primary pathogen considered responsible for Post-weaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome.

The vaccine, which is produced in Leone, France, has been used in Europe for approximately one and a half years and it's been available in Canada for about on week.

Merial Canada Product Manager Jean-Claude Noel says, because Circovac is not yet fully registered in Canada, certain conditions apply to its distribution.

"Canadian regulations are fairly stringent and I would say it's good for the Canadian market to be like that so we went to a special demand because the product is produced in Europe. We had to ask for a special permit from the Canadian government.

It was granted to us this year in February so we can import the product that is produced in Leone in France. After consulting with the government we decided to put in kind of a way of ordering the product. It has to go through a veterinarian first.

The veterinarian has to agree to follow the rules of the government for this special permit. Since the product is not fully registered in Canada, we have to follow some of these rules so the veterinarian is sending the demand to the office of Merial Canada and after that he can send orders. The product is already available and has been available now for a week."

Noel says orders in Canada have already come in from coast to coast.

He notes Circovac has been used in Europe in well over 350 thousand sows and the hope is that it will be fully registered in Canada within the next few months.

For more information, visit our PMWS Technical Zone

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.