29 January 2009
ATLANTA, GA (USA) and BOXMEER (The Netherlands),
Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health has segmented its poultry-product line into four areas — food safety, immune-system defense, intestinal health and respiratory protection — to help focus its resources on developing innovative, integrated solutions for managing poultry diseases.
“It’s not enough to talk with producers about specific diseases and products,” said Ruud Aerdts, senior director of the Global Poultry Business Unit, who announced the strategy at the International Poultry Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Today’s producers need well-developed, comprehensive, science-driven solutions for promoting good flock health and meeting their production, financial and food safety goals,” he continued. “Our goal is to build on our experiences, in-house expertise, partnerships, technical resources and the synergies of complementary products to create more holistic disease-management programs for poultry producers worldwide.”
Dr. Marcelo Lang, a veterinarian and global marketing director for poultry products, noted that poultry disease agents rarely appear alone. In the area of respiratory protection, for example, producers often face a “full complex of predisposing disease agents” that can impact the prevalence, duration and severity of disease, Lang said.
“The same occurs in the areas of intestinal health, immune-system defense (Marek’s disease, Gumboro disease, chicken anemia, reovirus) and food safety,” Lang added. “Complex disease problems require carefully crafted but easy-to-implement control strategies.”
To lead this initiative, Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health has assigned technical and marketing personnel to focus on specific areas of disease management [see accompanying press release]. Their mandate is to develop programs, technologies and educational initiatives that will further improve diagnostics, vaccination timing and administration, residue avoidance, environmental factors, nutritional programs and other variables that impact the success of poultry-health programs.
Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health is the world’s largest animal health company and leading supplier of health products to the poultry industry. The company’s world headquarters is in Boxmeer, the Netherlands, and is supported by regional facilities in more than 50 countries. Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health currently sells products in more than 140 countries.
