Vaccine supplier MSD Animal Health still does not know why its ''Scabine'' vaccine for scabby mouth in lambs has failed to ''take'' on farms throughout Southland and Otago.
Vet clinics throughout the south have received reports from farmers of failures for Scabine to take after lambs were scratched with the vaccine at tailing time. In a letter sent to all South Island veterinary clinics affected by the issue, the company said that since first learning about the vaccine problem it began working with the third-party manufacturer of Scabine to investigate the products.
Earlier this month, general manager Paul Koffman said nothing was more important to MSD than the safety and efficiency of its products and it would continue to investigate.
Clutha Vets veterinarian John Smart said ''retention samples'' for all of the affected batches were held at the manufacturing plants. These samples had been tested and Mr Smart was assured they were all working fine, he said.
''At this stage, we still don't know the reason for these erratically occurring poor takes.''
''At this stage, the only reasonable explanation seems to me to be a break in the cold chain supply somewhere between the manufacturing plant in Auckland and the tailing pens.''
''However, I hasten to add that this has not been proven at this point.''
In November, MSD called for South Island veterinary clinics to stop the sale of Scabine batches 132SL2, 132SL3 and 135SL2.
MSD has announced compensation packages for farmers and vet clinics affected by the failure.
BY Nicole Sharpe=