Herd Health and Management Symposium, Platinum Sponsored by HIPRA

HIPRA, as a platinum sponsor of the congress, brought together participants with experts through the HIPRA Satellite Symposium and "Meet to Expert" events held at their booth. Prof. Dr. Paolo Moroni from the University of Milan presented on “Current Approaches to Reducing Mastitis through Dry Period Management and Vaccination”, focusing on management, preventive medicine, and monitoring processes. His talk, grounded in recent studies from 2023 and 2024, was highly appreciated by both local and international veterinarians. He emphasized that combining managerial solutions with vaccination-induced immunity is key to sustainable animal husbandry.

The session attracted great interest, and Prof. Dr. Moroni continued to answer questions during the "Meet to Expert" event. Other experts also participated in the "Ask an Expert" sessions, including Prof. Dr. Veysel Soydal Ataseven, Prof. Dr. Sezgin Senturk, Prof. Dr. Yasar Ergun, and Dr. Martijn Seelie, who provided professional insights on topics such as udder health, vaccination, and pneumonia prevention.

HIPRA's booth became the most popular at the congress, successfully engaging participants and answering their questions in detail. In an interview with HIPRA Turkey's General Manager Serkan Bicer, he shared insights into HIPRA’s growth and success, particularly in preventive medicine and vaccines.

When HIPRA is mentioned, everyone thinks of a company specialized in vaccines and preventive medicine. You are really growing very fast in vaccines, not only in Turkey but all over the world. What is the formula behind this success story?

“There is actually only one reason behind the formula for success: The trust the sector has in HIPRA, our products and of course our teams. As HIPRA, in order to provide this trust and be worthy of it, we constantly invest in the quality and innovative vaccines and vaccine technologies that the field needs and in our sales, technical and marketing teams that position and promote these vaccines in the right indication.”

So why do you invest only in preventive medicine and vaccines?

“As you know, new diseases are entering the scope of the veterinary profession today depending on many factors. While new pathogens that did not previously cause infection emerge, many different diseases that were not on the agenda because they were controlled in the past may start to appear again. Therefore, new requirements that arise in intensive animal production, the increase in animal population, animal health and accordingly human health require the development of new and innovative protective products and protective methods.

In the mid-2000s, we reviewed our vision and took a strategic step that almost no other multinational animal health company in the world took, and we completely turned our direction to preventive medicine and determined our corporate vision as “The World Reference in Preventive Veterinary Medicine”. As a result, we have increased the trust of our sector stakeholders with approximately 25 new vaccines we have introduced to the market in recent years and have stood out as one of the leading vaccine companies.”

So, as the manager of a company specialized in vaccines, what is the right formula for choosing a vaccine?

“Vaccination is a very complex business. There are undoubtedly many criteria in choosing the right vaccine, but if I were to express it in a very simple mathematical formula;

RIGHT VACCINE = QUALITY + CONTINUOUS SUPPLY

As you know, QUALITY is a “CERTIFICATION” business. In other words, in order for a company’s products to be considered quality, the authorized authority must have inspected and documented the company’s production standards. According to the latest GMP regulation, which we, as HIPRA, also support, we have become one of the first companies to be inspected by our ministry’s GMP inspection teams and to be entitled to receive the GMP certificate for all of our production lines without exception. In addition, I would like to emphasize that we have received the license for almost all of the vaccines we have developed in recent years from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), one of the most meticulous and demanding authorities in the world.”

You have a considerable product range in the ruminant sector. Can you briefly talk about these products and their indication areas?

“As HIPRA, we offer effectiveness in reducing the incidence of mastitis and the severity of infection in the dairy large and small ruminant sector by reducing the need for antibiotic treatment with our innovative effect mode vaccines STARTVAC®, UBAC®, VIMCO®, AGALAXIPRA® that we have developed for the protection of both human and animal health. I would also like to mention our TOXIPRA® vaccine that protects against infections caused by Clostridial agents. With NASYM®, HIPRABOVIS® 4 and HIPRABOVIS® SOMNI/Lkt, HIPRABOVIS® IBR MARKER LIVE and HIPRABOVIS® BALANCE, we provide protection that minimizes the economic losses and antibiotic treatment numbers caused by viral and bacterial pneumonias (leukotoxin protection) in dairy and beef enterprises (82% reduction in antibiotic use) and with INMEVA®, we provide protection that guarantees the formation of both cellular and humoral immune responses, reducing bacterial shedding and abortion cases instead of antibiotic use for the prevention of abortions caused by Chlamydia abortus and Salmonella abortus ovis.”