07/04/06 Vaccines from plants

American Rancher July 4, 2006 Dow AgroSciences announced recently that it had received the world's first regulatory approval for a plant-made vaccine from the USDA Center for Veterinary Biologics. Butch Mercer is Dow AgroSciences Global Business leader for animal health. Mercer: "The United State's Department of Agriculture has issued a license to Dow AgroSciences for a vaccine to protect chickens from illness caused by the New Castle disease virus. This vaccine is the first fully licensed plant self produced vaccine for animals in the United States and the first plant-made product licensed by USDA's Animal Health and Plant Inspection Service." Mercer says the technology uses plant cells, not whole plants, in a secure, bio-contained environment to produce vaccines. Mercer: "This is not grown in any food crop whatsoever. They are just simply plant cells that are grown in a growth chamber or what we call a bioreactor. Once that has happened we harvest the material. We extract the immunogen the piece that will provide the immunity to the animal. We harvest that and then blend it into the vaccine." New plant-made vaccines from Dow AgroSciences may be on the horizon for other species including swine, cattle, horses, dogs and cats. I'm Bob Hoff.