Today (May 27), Merck announced that its Animal Health division's live vaccine for infectious bronchitis (strain 4-91), Poultry Bibi® Spread ( hereinafter referred to as Spread® ) , has recently been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China for the prevention of infectious bronchitis caused by the 4-91 variant of the infectious bronchitis virus .

acute, highly contagious respiratory disease caused by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a virus belonging to the genus Coronavirus in the family Coronaviridae . It has a short incubation period, spreads rapidly, and has a high morbidity rate, making it one of the major disease threats facing the global poultry industry.

Based on the different tropisms of the virus to various organs and tissues of chickens, IB can be divided into respiratory, renal, reproductive, and intestinal types. Among them, chicks have the highest mortality rate after infection , while adult chickens mainly suffer from a significant drop in egg production and a deterioration in egg quality, resulting in serious economic losses to farms.

Of particular concern is that IBV is a single-stranded RNA virus , which is prone to gene mutation and recombination during replication, resulting in numerous serotype and genotype variants, which poses a great challenge to the prevention and control of the disease.

The 4-91 variant (also known as type 793/B) is one of the important IBV strains that have become widespread in China in recent years, characterized primarily by kidney damage and decreased egg production. This strain has occurred and even caused outbreaks in many areas, resulting in significant economic losses to the poultry industry.

of Sijiuyi® has clear clinical value and industrial significance. This vaccine specifically provides immune protection against the 4-91 variant , offering farmers a precise control tool against the invasion of this specific variant.

As a live vaccine, its immune mechanism can mimic the natural infection process, rapidly induce the respiratory mucosa to produce secretory IgA antibodies, seize the virus invasion portal, and stimulate the body to produce a more comprehensive immune response. This helps to establish an effective immune barrier at the flock level, reduce the risk of disease outbreaks, and thus reduce the overall losses caused by decreased egg production, increased mortality, and secondary infections.

From a corporate strategy perspective, this approval is also a significant step for Merck Animal Health in its efforts to deepen its presence in the Chinese livestock and poultry vaccine market. China is one of the world's largest producers and consumers of poultry meat, with a massive scale of broiler and layer chicken farming, leading to a continuously growing demand for high-quality animal vaccines.

Merck Animal Health, leveraging its global R&D system, has introduced vaccine products targeting prevalent strains in China to the domestic market. This reflects both its deep understanding of the characteristics of local disease outbreaks and the trend of multinational animal health companies accelerating their localization of product offerings.

In conclusion , the approval of Spirulina® in China not only provides the poultry industry with a new immunization option to combat the 4-91 variant, but also injects the concept of precision control against locally prevalent strains into the animal vaccine market. As the livestock industry transitions towards large-scale and standardized operations, precise and efficient disease control tools will become a key infrastructure for ensuring the industry's stable operation.

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