Dalan Animal Health relocates to focus on honeybee vaccine

Aleksandr Rybalko / stock.adobe.com

Dalan Animal Health, Inc. (Dalan)– a biotech company focused on insect health – announced that the company is relocating its headquarters to Athens, Georgia. The company anticipates creating 20 new jobs over the next 5 years because of the move.

Annette Kleiser, chief executive officer at Dalan said in a company release, “Athens is the ideal location to build an innovative biotechnology company focused on sustainable agriculture. We're excited to be a part of this community and take advantage of its many benefits to achieve significant and sustained growth.”¹

Dalan hopes to expand its team to increase development in honeybee diseases research. Dalan seeks to prevent diseases that affect beneficial insect populations to increase the yield of pollinated crop farms worldwide. According to the release, the company's first product to market is a honeybee vaccine for American Foulbrood (AFB), a highly contagious disease threatening beehives worldwide.¹

AFB is highly contagious and destroys the developing bee larvae. The disease-causing bacteria is present in 50% of commercial hives worldwide. According to estimates in the U.S. alone, lost annual revenue due to AFB and other diseases is estimated at $400 million and growing.²

“Any of the common bee diseases may limit production. The worst of them, AFB, can be cripplingly expensive to control. The loss of hives destroyed because of AFB is a minor cost compared to the cost of the additional effort required to minimize the risk of AFB spreading within the apiaries,” said the Australian Government, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.²

For AFB prevention, the Dalan vaccine exposes queen bees to inactive bacteria that enable the larvae hatched in the hive to resist infection. This development has undergone multiple clinical studies and is under regulatory review.¹

In the future, Dalan hopes to expand its product development to not only treat other honeybee diseases but other underserved industries like mealworms, shrimp, and grasshoppers used in feed and food production.

References

1. Biotech company Dalan Animal Health relocates to Athens, Georgia. News release. Dalan Animal Health. June 1, 2022. Accessed June 1, 2022.https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biotech-company-dalan-animal-health-relocates-to-athens-georgia-301558515.html
2. Dalan Animal Health. Accessed June 1, 2022. https://www.dalan.com/.