On Friday 26 April, The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality announced the availability of a bluetongue vaccine for the Dutch market. Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR, part of Wageningen University & Research) is contributing to the efficacy and safety testing of vaccines.
Developing a vaccine and testing the induced protection after vaccination is only possible in animals and depends on a good and reproducible infection model. Commissioned and financially supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) developed such an animal model last winter for testing the effectiveness and safety of bluetongue vaccines. This model was developed specifically for testing vaccines against bluetongue serotype 3 (BTV-3), the virus variant found in Dutch sheep and cattle in autumn 2023. 'The animal model was ready by the end of 2023. From then on, it was available for vaccine testing,' says WBVR researcher Melle Holwerda, head of the National Reference Laboratory for bluetongue.
Vaccine available
In the past two months, the animal model has been used to test a bluetongue vaccine against BTV-3. Thanks to intensive cooperation within WBVR and the deployment of various research disciplines, sufficient data from the animal research could be delivered to government and registration authorities in a very short time to reach a decision.
Thanks to good coordination between the pharmaceutical company, the Veterinary Medicines Agency of the Medicines Evaluation Board (aCGB) and the Veterinary Medicines Authorisation Board, WBVR and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), a vaccine against BTV-3 is expected to be available from the beginning of May, the ministry reported in a letter to the House of Representatives.
Forecast
The vaccine now being authorised is expected to arrive in time to dampen and hopefully prevent the expected upsurge of bluetongue in the summer, Agricultural minister Piet Adema said. The minister bases this expectation on the opinion of the Animal Disease Expert Group on bluetongue. The experts expect a large-scale clinical outbreak from late June/early July similar to the second season of the BTV-8 outbreak in 2007.
