Zoetis granted import permit for turkey rhinotracheitis vaccine
Vaccine will help poultry producers and veterinarians fight rapidly emerging avian metapneumovirus in the United States
29 January 2025
2 minute read
By: Today, Zoetis Inc. announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB) has granted an import permit for a modified live vaccine, Poulvac® TRT, to address a growing need in the poultry industry to control turkey rhinotracheitis (TRT), an upper respiratory tract disease caused by avian metapneumovirus (AMPV).
“Securing the import permit and bringing an effective intervention to the United States to help combat this infectious disease has been the utmost priority for our Zoetis team, given the critical impact it has on the industry,” said Kristin Kasselman, Senior Vice President, U.S. Head of Livestock & Equine at Zoetis. “We are incredibly grateful for the collaboration with our customers, government agencies and the industry at large in ensuring this vaccine is made available during a time of need.”
AMPV is very infectious and highly transmissible, primarily affecting turkeys, followed by broilers and layers. The virus first appeared in the fall of 2023 and is now widespread in the United States. In response to the emerging threat, USDA’s CVB has indicated its interest in partnering with the industry to provide a vaccine.
“Our work with the CVB and state health officials has focused on making a vaccine available to turkey veterinarians in the United States to address this emerging disease,” said Kalen Cookson, DVM, MAM, DACPV, Director of Clinical Research, Zoetis. “Poulvac TRT has been used successfully around the world where producers have dealt with AMPV pressure.”
The single vaccine is administered by coarse spray, eye drop or nose drop to turkeys 1 day of age or older but less than 10 days of age. In a study, following vaccine administration, immunity was demonstrated as early as three weeks and was shown to persist for up to 14 weeks.1
Poulvac TRT is manufactured at a Zoetis facility in Spain. Once the available product has been delivered to the United States, Zoetis will prioritize vaccine allocation.
For more information about the new vaccine, contact your veterinarian or local Zoetis representative.
