Intervet/Schering-Plough launches new canine Lyme vaccine

National Report

-- Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health just introduced Nobivac Lyme -- a unique vaccine designed to provide protection by targeting two key outer-surface proteins involved in the transmission of canine Lyme disease, the company says.

The vaccine induces the production of highly specific antibodies called borreliacidal antibodies that kill Borrelia burgdorferi by binding to outer-surface proteins (OSP) A and C, the company reports in a prepared statement. The ability of Nobivac Lyme to stimulate borreliacidal antibodies to both OspA and OspC provides an additional layer of defense against Lyme disease.

The new vaccine calls for two doses, two to four weeks apart, with an annual booster thereafter. Data supporting one-year duration of immunity are on file with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Intervet reports. Safety studies demonstrated virtually no site reactions, the company adds.

"This vaccine represents a major advance in the prevention of Lyme disease in dogs because … it induces OspC borreliacidal antibodies that can kill B. burgdorferi at multiple time points during the infection process," explains Rhonda LaFleur, PhD, group leader of Biologicals Research and Development for Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health. "OspA borreliacidal antibodies only kill Borrelia while they are in the tick midgut. OspC borreliacidal antibodies, however, kill spirochetes in the tick midgut, spirochetes that are migrating from the midgut to the tick's salivary glands and spirochetes that are introduced into the dog."

For more information, go to www.intervet.com or www.intervetusa.com