Food Animal Vaccines: Big Money and Big Risks
January 3, 2020 | Source: The Vaccine Reaction | by Barbara Loe Fisher
Most people are aware of Big Pharma’s global human vaccine franchise facilitated by business deals with governments and its attempt to silence skepticism about vaccine safety that could harm profits from sale of vaccines.1 2 Less well known is the existence of a lucrative food animal vaccine franchise, which is seldom mentioned in the mainstream press. Perhaps that is because the breadth of livestock diseases and types of vaccines given to food animals could kill people’s appetites, especially if the information was included on food labels.
Selling veterinary vaccines for animals that humans eat (cattle, pigs, poultry, fish) and human companion animals (cats, dogs, horses) is a big business. Financial forecasts predict it will be a $11.55 billion global market by 2025.3
Merck Leader in Animal Vaccine Sales
For example Merck & Co., which is a leader in sales of both human4 and animal vaccines, markets 49 vaccines for poultry alone.5