Pharmgate Animal Health announces PRRSGard, an innovative, modified-live vaccine, has received USDA approval extending expiratory dating from 18 to 24 months.

“Eighteen months is the USDA standard for live vaccines, but our extended stability data confirm the product is stable, resulting in the approval of the 24-month expiration dating in November,” says Betsy Conarchy, biological regulatory affairs and quality manager for Pharmgate.

“Producers and veterinarians now can have even more confidence in using the vaccine.” PRRSGard is a 1.0 millilitre, single-dose recombinant chimeric vaccine for Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRSV). It features:

• An attenuated, lineage 1 PRRSV strain as a vaccine backbone
• A virulent, contemporary lineage 1 PRRSV field isolate, MN 184
• A non-encoding RNA sequence is inserted into the genome. This unique genetic marker allows diagnostic assay differentiation from “wild-type” virus strains.

Trials show that PRRSGard promotes broad cross-strain immunity, reduced lung lesions and viremia, a low vaccine virus shed and spread following a challenge. It has been shown to reduce performance loss from pneumonia associated with PRRSV in growing pigs.