Boehringer Ingelheim receives EU approval for bovine diarrhoea vaccine

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced that its new bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) vaccine Bovela has been approved by the European Medicines Agency.

The vaccine has been shown to reduce clinical signs of the severe cattle disease and prevent the birth of persistently-infected animals caused by transplacental infection. It is the first EU-approved product that protects against both genotypes of the BVD virus.

BVD has a heavy economic impact on cattle farmers, as it causes decreased weight gain, reduced milk production, reproductive losses and death in infected animals. Its symptoms can easily be confused with other diseases, making detection and control difficult.

Bovela will be launched in Europe in spring 2015, ahead of its rollout to other important cattle farming regions across the world in the coming years.

Dr Joachim Hasenmaier, responsible for animal health and consumer healthcare at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: "Our long-term objective is to provide worldwide protection against this disease and to reduce the number of infected cattle significantly."

Vetmedica, the animal health branch of Boehringer Ingelheim, was founded in the 1950s, and has been present in the UK since 1980.