Barbervax commercial vaccine for Haemonchus contortus, the Barber’s pole worm

Summary

Quality systems were devised for making Barbervax® to the Good Manufacturing Practice standard required by the regulators, the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicine Authority (APVMA). Only once this standard has been achieved do data from field trials of a vaccine count for registration purposes. A Good Manufacturing Practice licence was attained in 2011 and has since twice passed inspection by an APVMA appointed auditor, including a scaled–up version of the process.

Four field efficacy trials were subsequently conducted with lambs in New England, NSW during the summer of 2011-2012. These trials were an essential part of the work needed to obtain commercial registration of the vaccine for lambs, which was achieved on Oct 1st 2014. Two safety trials were also conducted.

Barbervax should offer the Australian sheep industry an additional, sustainable tool to control one of its most important parasites.