Pooey pigs could be a thing of the past

A second field trial of a non-antibiotic, natural therapy to prevent and treat diarrhoea in weaned pigs is being conducted in a large scale commercial piggery in South East Queensland.

The results will assist Anatara Lifesciences’ application to register its lead product, Detach, for sale in Australia with the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA).

A minimum of 560 weaners have been enrolled in this second study with results expected within the third quarter 2015. The first weaners have been dosed with Detach in a placebo controlled, parallel group, randomised and blinded study.

The trial will investigate the ability of Detach to reduce the incidence, severity and duration of diarrhoea, otherwise known as scour, compared to placebo. Scour will be assessed by a scour score that measures the incidence and severity of scour as weaner clinical condition. Other trial endpoints include increases in average daily weight gain as well as the reduction in antibiotic treatments.

The second trial has commenced using Detach manufactured under the code of good manufacturing practice (cGMP), and just under 500,000 doses at commercial scale have already been produced in line with registration requirements of the APVMA.

Anatara CEO Dr Paul Schober said: “We are confident in our ability to scale manufacturing to meet global demand. In assessing the registration requirements for Detach in a number of major Asian markets we are confident of a relatively straightforward approval process post successful registration in Australia.”

Anatara Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) Dr Tracey Mynott said: “Detach has already been shown to be effective in preventing scour in piglets both in the first trial reported earlier this year and in earlier Australian and international field trials. Assuming this new trial data supports the existing data, Anatara expects to submit its registration application for Detach in pigs with the APVMA in the fourth quarter 2015.”

There is an urgent need to reduce the use of antibiotics in animals because of the emergence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance is a serious worldwide problem for animals and is a growing issue that governments globally are grappling with.

Anatara expects Detach to be on sale in 2016 based on the current pace of progress and with trial results supporting existing data. Launch into a number of Asian markets is targeted to follow shortly after.

Planning for the registration of Detach in Europe and the USA is well advanced.

Image: ©iStockphoto.com/Anatolii Tsekhmister