Fort Dodge Animal Health was given the license to market the product developed by Janet Yamamoto, Ph.D., and a professor at UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine. She co-discovered the feline immunodeficiency virus. The FIV vaccine is expected to be available to cat owners through their veterinarians as early as this summer. “This is the first product to ever be made available for preventing this viral infection,” said USDA spokesperson Jim Rogers. “For that matter, it’s the first time any type of vaccine to prevent any type of animal immunodeficiency virus infection has ever been approved for commercial use.” FIV has many biological similarities to the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV; the cause of human AIDS. For that reason, strategies and procedures for protecting cats from FIV are expected to aid in the development of human AIDS vaccines. Between 2- and 25-percent of the global domestic cat population is believed to be infected with the virus, according to the USDA. The numbers vary due to geographic location, ages of the cats, whether they are kept outdoors and other health problems they may have. “It is generally believed that transmission of FIV takes place through bite wounds inflicted during fighting, and no cat-to-human transmission has ever been reported in literature,” Yamamoto said. “However, we are looking into the possibility.” Yamamoto first discovered the virus in 1986 along with a former colleague, Niels Pederson, M.D., and Ph.D., of the University of California, Davis. Yamamoto has continued to study the virus and its pathogenesis, which provided the foundation for developing the vaccine. UF and the Regents of the University of California jointly hold patents for the FIV vaccine, and the two institutions have reached an agreement with Fort Dodge to explore the use of the FIV vaccine for commercial applications. |