News regarding FMD vaccine. Please read!

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I just found this Press Release from United Biomedical Inc. dated April 23, 2001. Webpage is www.unitedbiomedical.com I urge you all to contact the USDA and put as much pressure as possible on them to expedite the licensing and use of this vaccine ASAP. (Ken S. - I'm assuming since this is a press release, that it is not copyrighted material.) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE United Biomedical Inc. Reports Efficacy Data on Its Synthetic Peptide-based Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine Contact: Ms. Francine Volz Public Relations Tel: (631) 273-2828 Fax: (631) 273-1717 PR@unitedbiomedical.com Web Page: www.unitedbiomedical.com Monday, April 23, 2001 UBI (United Biomedical, Inc.) of Hauppauge, N.Y. has developed a synthetic peptide vaccine against foot-and-mouth disease virus. The UBI vaccine is effective in pigs and is a practical vaccine for use in countries such as the U.S. that are free of the disease. Unlike conventional killed virus vaccines, the synthetic vaccine is completely safe. In a presentation scheduled for Monday afternoon , April 23, 2001, at the Fourth Annual Conference on Vaccine Research, Arlington VA, Dr. Alan M. Walfield of UBI will report the results from immunization-challenge trials in pigs. In five different trials done in government laboratories on three continents, the UBI vaccine protected 45 out of 46 pigs from an intentional exposure to the highly contagious virus. The vaccine is practical as it causes no side effects and can be commercially produced at a cost comparable to conventional vaccines. Dr. Walfield's report will focus on a trial conducted at the United States Department of Agriculture Plum Island Animal Disease Center and is co-authored by Dr. Fred Brown of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Dr. Juan Lubroth of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and others. The highly contained Plum Island laboratory is the only facility in North America permitted to work with the foot-and-mouth disease virus. UBI has been developing synthetic peptide-based diagnostics and vaccines as an integrated system for control and eradication of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) since 1997. UBI, along with the USDA, has stepped up its efforts in response to the recent outbreak in the United Kingdom. The company is participating with representatives from several units of the USDA, including the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Agricultural Research Service and the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in a task force charged with accelerating testing and registration of FMDV diagnostics and vaccines. This effort will become part of the official U.S. program for control of FMD. The USDA seeks to complete the testing of the UBI vaccine in cattle and sheep with the goal of having it available in the event of an outbreak in the U.S. UBI is a privately held international biopharmaceutical company developing immunotherapeutic, vaccine, pharmaceutical, and diagnostic products for human and veterinary use. For further questions regarding FMDV, please view the FAQs posted on our website.  

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), April 26, 2001

Answers

Husband said he heard there were 3 confirmed cases of FMD among the soldiers/others burning the carcasses in England, some of which have lain around for 3 weeks or more. How's that for fun?

Saw a Discovery channel special on the flu pandemic of 1917. Its origins were traced to the burning of manure/bedding from the cavalry units in Ft. Riley KS and the first deaths were there. By the time it had gone around the world it had mutated from the original form.

Saw a quick news blurb in the last couple of days about Prince Charles visiting Canada and he walked through a "disinfectant pad" to clean his shoes. It didn't look deep enough to do a thorough job, nor was he in it any time at all. What about any dust on his clothes or on his entourage?

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), April 27, 2001.


There are good reasons why licensing of new drugs is slow. It is vital that adequate testing be done, field trials be comprehensive and possible side effects studied, all with good control studies. You can imagine the chaos if a vaccine was adopted prematurely, preventative measures relaxed, and then the vaccine was ineffective, or even partially ineffective in some way. Positive results for pigs should be taken as an encouraging start, not a final test!

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), April 27, 2001.

I have to agree with David... But will check the site anyway. I heard something along these lines when researching (as per my first question on this). Still.... 45 out of 46 isn't going to save us by a long-shot.

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), April 27, 2001.

I saw nothing here which says this vaccine can be differentiated from an animal which carries actual F&MD. That's the problem. A country cannot regain its F&MD-free status for that area until every single animal which was vaccinated is dead. I also saw nothing which says it is quicker acting than today's vaccines, nor that it provided any longer immunity, nor that it was not still stain specific.

Sorry, this isn't the magic bullet and may never prove to be anything.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), April 27, 2001.


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