How preparedness in veterinary public health keeps animals healthy and trade moving

Animal Health

It starts quietly: a cow that won’t put weight on a hoof, a ribbon of drool, a field vet who trusts their gut. By late afternoon, the reference lab has an answer—and it’s the kind that travels fast: a transboundary animal disease (TAD). TADs are fast-spreading livestock diseases that cross borders and disrupt trade—like foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), bluetongue, lumpy skin disease, avian influenza.

Early detection on the farm: A veterinarian checks a cow’s health status—the first step in containing a potential TAD outbreak quickly.

Without vaccine or antigen banks, first doses of vaccines often take three to nine months to arrive. With antigen banks like those Boehringer Ingelheim operates for FMD outbreaks, authorities can unlock stored antigens and have formulated FMD vaccine ready in about seven working days. That week can make the difference between a contained incident or months of economic pain—while animals are already suffering from fever, lameness and painful lesions.

A TAD outbreak is confirmed: What happens first?

The public sees road signs and containment maps. What they don’t see is the choreography that begins the moment an authority sends an activation letter or call to trigger a bank. “The clock starts as soon as activation is confirmed,” says Pascal Hudelet, head of veterinary public health technical services. “Our job is to stop wondering and start orchestrating—pull the right people, open batch records, set priorities across formulation, quality assurance and supply.”

With or without a vaccine bank

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Time to first doses

7 working days vs 3 to 9 months without a bank

Trade interruption

Trade reopens vs extended export bans without a bank

Animal impact

Less sickness vs mass depopulation without a bank

Farmer impact

Secure income vs herd loss, income shock without a bank

Public confidence

Clear plan in place vs uncertainty without a bank

What is an antigen (vaccine) bank?

An antigen bank is a strategic reserve of deep-frozen, purified antigen for a specific disease—here at our company it’s for FMD. Under a government or NGO contract, we produce and store these antigens so they can be rapidly formulated into vaccine upon activation. A vaccine bank, by contrast, stores finished vaccine doses. Both models speed access; antigen banks add flexibility when a precise strain match and fast formulation are needed.

Why public health preparedness matters for TAD outbreaks

TADs like FMD don’t just make animals sick; they trigger movement restrictions on animals, animal products and farm traffic, shake public confidence and shrink farm incomes.

Preparedness from a public perspective requires combining effective surveillance with a clear vaccination plan and pre-agreed supply so governments can respond without delay.

Day 0The alert, the clock starts

A lab confirms the virus. The competent authority sends the activation notice. Inside Boehringer, the “week plan” opens: Manufacturing site leads are paged, materials and batch records surface, and a single priority replaces everything else. Phones, then people, move.

Day 1Bank activation

The authority confirms the serotype match and unlocks the corresponding stored antigen. Our colleagues in Lyon prepare the workspace, reserve equipment time, and stage ancillary components so formulation can begin without delay. We coordinate closely with the reference lab and the authority’s logistics lead.

Day 2-3Formulation

Our technicians thaw and formulate the deep-frozen antigen into vaccine according to the pre-agreed dossier. Documents and in-process controls are completed as we go—because the clock is running and there’s no room for rework.

Day 4-5Fill & label

The vaccine goes through sterile filling and is labelled and tracked, ready for release. We assemble cold-chain packaging in parallel; we book shipment routes while vials are still warm from production. Every step is logged to keep border crossings smooth later.

Day 5-6Quality checks & release

Our Quality teams complete the last checks and align the release decision with veterinary authorities. The goal: Scientific certainty and legal clarity, delivered quickly, so vaccines can move the minute the seal is broken on shipping crates.

Day 7Dispatch & arrival

Cold-chain rolls. Customs and receipt checks are pre-briefed by us to the local partners, so trucks don’t idle at the border. Documentation travels with the shipment—and digitally ahead of it—to keep the timeline intact.

Day 7+Deployment

On site, authorities choose the strategy—ring vaccination 3km or 10km zone around the outbreak or even wider.

Roles in outbreak response: Government leads, we execute under contract

“Activation is the moment everything snaps into place,” Pascal says. “From then on, it’s discipline and sequence.” Once the authority activates, our Bank & Tenders colleagues lift the contract off the shelf and make it live—volumes locked, delivery points agreed, documentation opened so nothing stalls later.

Our Technical Services teams translate the lab’s strain result into action on the line: match the antigen, prepare the formulation dossier, align quality release with the veterinary authority, and book cold-chain capacity so trucks don’t idle at borders. Local distributors are briefed on which hub receives which lot and which vaccinators are first in line.

“Practice varies by country,” Audrey Guibal, head of bank & tenders management, notes. “Some announce bank activations; others prefer silence. Our discipline is the same: Authorities lead, and we execute under contract.”

You don’t see preparedness in headlines; you feel it in the absence of a bigger crisis. Pascal Hudelet, head of veterinary public health technical services

Preparedness pays off: Protecting livestock health and trade continuity

Most days, preparedness looks uneventful: freezers humming, rosters updated, routes pre-booked. Then an alert lands—and all that quiet work pays off. Our job is to turn a lab code into safe, matched vaccine doses on time. About seven working days later, cold boxes clear the border, vaccinators start where risk is highest, and the public line is mercifully dull: Vaccination started on time.

“Preparedness buys days—and days buy options: fewer animals lost, steadier farm incomes, a shorter road back to open trade,” says Pascal. “You don’t see preparedness in headlines; you feel it in the absence of a bigger crisis.”

Shaping connections

We connect surveillance, regulators, manufacturers, and cold-chain logistics into one preparedness network. Our antigen banks link early warning to rapid formulation and delivery, so responses move in days, not months. These connections protect animal health and livelihoods—keeping trade moving when it matters most and resilience strong before crises hit.