Environmental and social impacts
An effective vaccine for livestock will increase animal welfare, decrease disease management expenses and reduce the environmental footprint of food production.
Mycoplasma infection in animals cause pain and can lead to stunted development or even death. For this reason, preventing the disease can help to improve animal welfare. Furthermore, healthy animals can increase profit for farmers and the food industry, because healthy animals produce greater yields. Moreover, happy animals lead to happy consumers, because consumers are becoming increasingly aware of animal welfare in food production.
An effective vaccine means sanitary cull of infected animals can be prevented or reduced and thus prevent economic losses for farmers. Any potential efficiency gains in the production chain are also likely to benefit consumers in terms of price. Moreover, MycoSynVac is in favor of promoting accessibility and adoption rates in less well-off regions, where a successful vaccine would have the biggest impact on both animal and human welfare, and where adoption of new technologies is vital if agriculture is to remain competitive.
Last but not least, decreasing Mycoplasma infection rates may have important beneficial effects for the environment and human health. An effective vaccine would indeed help to limit the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock and its consequences. Antibiotics used in animals end up in our food, which alter our microbiota and affects our health, and are also a major cause for the development of antibiotic resistance, which is one of the biggest threats to global health.
An effective vaccine would thus represent an important scientific breakthrough. Biosafety risks and ethical concerns are assessed to ensure that MycoSynVac derived products are safe and socially acceptable. MycoSynVac also pays attention to hopes and concerns by citizens and aims to transparently communicate relevant information to the public.
More information in the ethical framework section