Skretting, the fish feed business of the Dutch animal nutrition company Nutreco , is spending €20 million ($27 million) on an upgrade of its fish feed plant in Tasmania, Australia, The investment will double the factory’s capacity, enabling the company to meet future demand for salmon, trout, ...

The Venkateshwara Hatcheries (VH) Group plans to set up a poultry vaccine manufacturing facility in the Canton of Jura in Switzerland, the first such initiative by an Indian company. The VH Group expects the new unit to provide a “stepping stone” for planned growth in Europe. The new unit, which is ...

The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (JMAFF) reports that nine new veterinary medicines were approved during the second half of 2009. Of these, seven were vaccines, one was an antiparasitic and one was an antibiotic. Japanese veterinary drug approvals, H2 ...

The European Commission will award grants worth a total of €18 million ($24.5 million) to research projects studying influenza in pigs and humans. A call for research proposals in July last year resulted in 17 applications for funding, of which the Commission has chosen four. The European ...

Sanofi-Aventis has confirmed that it is to exercise its option to merge the Merial animal health business it acquired from Merck & Co last year into a joint venture company with Merck’s Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health (I/SPAH). It will become the world’s largest animal health company with ...

Pfizer Animal Health has divested a further tranche of assets, this time to Elanco, in the wake of its integration of the Fort Dodge operation last year following its parent company’s acquisition of Wyeth. The latest deal, which includes product licenses and a manufacturing facility in Ireland, ...

Sanofi-Aventis has announced that it will exercise an option to combine Merial with Merck’s Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health (I/SPAH) business, creating a new global leader in animal health. The joint venture will be equally owned by Merck and Sanofi-Aventis. Sanofi is to pay Merck $250 ...

Irish pig farmers are preparing for a final round of testing for Aujeszky’s disease. This should lead to official recognition from the European Commission that the disease has been eradicated. Agriculture minister Brendan Smith said that significant progress had been made with the national ...

Ceva Animal Health is adding a new product, Meloxidyl Injection, to its range of products for joint care in dogs and cats. The product is available in 10ml bottles containing 5mg/ml of the active ingredient meloxicam, and is indicated for the control of post-operative pain in cats and dogs and the ...

Alstoe Animal Health, a UK veterinary products distributor based near York, has introduced a new range of highly palatable joint supplements for horses. It says this approach will counter the traditional problem of persuading horses to ingest the substances. The product is being launched in the UK ...

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new dose range for Elanco ’s tilmicosin product, Micotil, as well as new treatment claims. The product now has a flexible dose range of 10 mg/kg (1.5 ml/cwt) to 20 mg/kg (3 ml/cwt) for metaphylaxis and individual treatment of bovine respiratory ...

Pfizer Animal Health is to exercise its licensing option on Immunovaccine’s vaccine enhancement and delivery platform, in order to develop a third livestock vaccine. Pfizer agreed the first license deal, to develop cattle vaccines, in November 2009. Immunovaccine, a Canadian biotechnology company, ...

Austrian animal nutrition company Biomin has launched a series of internet videos with information about mycotoxins, the fungal toxins that can contaminate the food chain and cause losses to companies and animal producers. The videos can be accessed via the company’s Mycotoxin Channel on the ...

Farmabase, a Brazilian animal health company specializing in veterinary products for swine and poultry, has changed its internal structure, with one of its partners, Paulo Machado , having acquired single ownership of the business. The company is also launching a new antimicrobial for swine, ...

The Wellcome Trust , the global charity aiming to improve human and animal health, has published its plan for the next decade. It has set five challenges for researchers using Wellcome funding to advance the understanding of health and disease. The five areas are to maximize the health benefits of ...