Since rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus type II (RHDV2) made its first incursion into Canada, and again more recently with the first detection of this virus in Ontario, there’s been a lot of interest in vaccination of rabbits (rabbits and hares are the only species known to be affected). Effective vaccines are available for this highly transmissible and fatal rabbit virus, but they are not licensed in Canada. To access the vaccine, Canadian veterinarians therefore have had to apply to the Canadian Centre for Veterinary Biologics (CCVB) for an import permit (which takes some time) and then source a vaccine from Europe (which takes time and money). It’s doable, but it makes it hard to get vaccine quickly, which can hamper response in a potential outbreak.

Better access to RHDV vaccine is on the horizon, though, as one of the European vaccines, Filavac VHD C+V, now has market authorization in Canada through Ceva Animal Health. It’s currently available to veterinarians from some of the key purchasing groups, and should be available through others very soon. So, veterinarians should now have relatively easy access to this vaccine through their normal purchasing channels, should they have a need for it.

PS: I don’t usually write about specific products or companies, but this is an important issue and not a matter of one product vs another – it’s something that’s now available that wasn’t before. At Worms&Germs, we try hard to be independent and not have any external influences, perceived or otherwise. We don’t have advertising on the blog, we don’t have any sponsors, we control all our content, and the few thousand dollars a year that it takes to pay for the site come from the University of Guelph’s Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses.