Targeting Disease with Medgene Labs featuring Bob Gentry

Here at the Angus Beef Bulletin, our staff works to provide you – our subscribers – the most up-to-date information regarding health, nutrition, marketing, genetics and management. When we had the opportunity to interview a Kansas veterinarian at Angus Convention about a company working to provide effective vaccinations for immediate animal health concerns, we knew we had to bring you the information. 

On this episode, we are joined by Bob Gentry, key account manager with Medgene Labs, along with our very own Shauna Hermel, to discuss: 

• How Medgene's "platform technology" allows vaccines to safely and easily adapt to multiple animal disease targets
• Why a quick response to newly emerged illnesses in critical
• Which vaccinations are currently available from Medgene
• And much more!

 We thank Purina Mills for their support of this episode.

Find more information to make Angus work for you in the Angus Beef Bulletin and ABB EXTRA. Make sure you're subscribed! Sign up here to the print Angus Beef Bulletin and the digital Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. Have questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Contact our team at abbeditorial@angus.org.

Transcript

Lynsey McAnally (00:02):

Angus At Work, a podcast for the profit-minded cattleman. Brought to you by the Angus Beef Bulletin, we have news and information on health, nutrition, marketing, genetics and management. So let's get to work, shall we? 

Hello and welcome back to Angus At Work here at the Angus Beef Bulletin. Our staff works to provide you – our subscribers – the most up-to-date information regarding health, nutrition, marketing, genetics and management. When we have the opportunity to interview a Kansas veterinarian at Angus Convention about a company working to provide effective vaccinations for immediate animal health concerns, we knew we had to bring you the information. 

I'm Lynsey McAnally, and on today's episode, we are joined by Bob Gentry, key account manager with Medgene Labs, along with our very own Shauna Hermel to discuss how Medgene's “platform technology” allows vaccines to safely and easily adapt to multiple animal disease targets. Why a quick response to newly emerged illnesses is critical, which vaccinations are currently available from Medgene and much more. So, let's dive in! 

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Shauna Hermel (02:02):

Hello and welcome to this episode of Angus At Work! We're here at the National Angus Convention, and I am visiting with Dr. Bob Gentry about some new technology in the vaccine realm. So, let's get started here today. Dr. Gentry, could you explain a little bit about yourself? Introduce yourself to our audience?

Bob Gentry (02:22):

Right. My name is Bob Gentry. I'm a veterinarian. I live in Kansas in north central Kansas and practiced there for 30 plus years full-time and still practice a little bit. And I've been working with the company Medgene for a little over two years on sales and technical support of the vaccine that we produce.

Shauna Hermel (02:38):

Now, Medgene's kind of a new company as far for beef cattle production. Can you explain a little bit about what Medgene is?

Bob Gentry (02:47):

Right. Well, Medgene was started about 2011 actually, at least on an experimental basis at that time. And the USDA was involved in this startup because of the need for rapid response to foreign animal disease. Department of Homeland Security was involved and brought forward some technology into the livestock industry, beginning with pigs and then into cattle. And so we're not as far along with the cattle as we were with the pigs. But in the cattle side, we're out there a couple of years and getting into the market and bringing on new technologies and new vaccines that aren't available otherwise.

Shauna Hermel (03:23):

Okay. We talk a lot in the industry about killed vaccines and modified live vaccines. How do some of these vaccines that Medgene’s presenting, how do they differ?

Bob Gentry (03:35):

First of all, it's killed vaccine. The process is called, or the licensing level is called a prescription platform. And so prescription platform is a classification by USDA that was brought forward in order to fill some gaps in the vaccine market that could not be filled economically by fully licensed vaccines and still not filled by autogenous vaccines. So we're neither one of those. So I tell everyone, we're not mRNA, we're not fully licensed, we are not autogenous, but we are fully licensed in the sense that it is a licensed prescription platform.

Shauna Hermel (04:14):

And some of the diseases that you're creating vaccines for that are ready for market today?

Bob Gentry (04:21):

Right. Our primary ones on the cattle side are a bovine papillomavirus vaccine, which is commonly known as wart vaccine. And our wart vaccine – or bovine papillomavirus vaccine – is a multivalent of a number of strains of papilloma. And we make our vaccine very similar to how human – or exactly in some cases – how human vaccine is made. So this technology's never been applied to, even though it's been around on the human side for quite a while, it's never been applied to livestock. So we have the ability to take advantage of a production system that is not new, but new to the livestock vaccine arena. And so we have vaccines that couldn't be produced before, such as the bovine papilloma.

Shauna Hermel (05:07):

As far as commercial producers are concerned, and seedstock as well, that should impact them because?

Bob Gentry (05:14):

Well, the bovine papilloma is a big problem mainly in predominantly seedstock operations where we have these warts quite commonly, especially in bulls (genital warts) that cause either permanent or sometimes temporary, but often permanent damage. And so we can have a new technology to jump in and alleviate those on the other side for commercial and seedstock producers. We have the respiratory and enteric disease vaccinations for scours, meaning corona and rotavirus. We’ll have a Cryptosporidium vaccine very shortly. And then on the respiratory side, we have a good respiratory coronavirus vaccine, and then that coronavirus can be in combination with something such as Influenza Type D.

Shauna Hermel (05:59):

Okay. Influenza Type D. Can you explain that? 

Bob Gentry (06:03):

Influenza Type D is not very well known. And when it was discovered in, I think it was 2011 or 2012, it was actually discovered in Oklahoma for the first time in the world in pigs. And at first they thought maybe it was a pig disease, but it actually turns out that it's predominantly a cattle disease and it causes respiratory symptoms and tracheitis. The clinical signs are similar to any other respiratory virus that's out there. And a lot of people honestly haven't heard about it, but even since the first time it was discovered, Kansas State University diagnostic lab had a big interest in it and people there jumped in and started testing very thoroughly for Influenza Type D. And of all the respiratory submissions that go through that diagnostic lab from cattle, they find that they’re about 18% positive for Influenza Type D. So it is out there, it's quite a bit. It's worldwide and there's two different families or clades they call them that are in the United States and one's named after the discovery. In Oklahoma, it's called the Oklahoma Clade. And then the other one is called a 660, and those are the two ones that we deal with on a regular basis. And we have a vaccine in our company for those that's in combination with the respiratory coronavirus vaccine.

Shauna Hermel (07:17):

Now those would be typically used in cattle. And what age group?

Bob Gentry (07:21):

Well, for example, our rotavirus-coronavirus use predominantly in cows and heifers so that we are vaccinating the dam so that she can build colostral antibodies and provide antibodies in the colostrum against rotavirus and coronavirus. And, very shortly, it'll include crypto. And then once we have those as well as clostridiums and e-Coli down the road. And so that one we give predominantly to the cow, there are some situations where we're giving that to baby calves and for Corona, just because they can't get it into the cow and we need something for those on the respiratory side. We're using it at all ages. So you can either have coronavirus by itself or coronavirus with the Influenza D. I'm personally using it on calves at branding age of that 2-3 months and then follow up with a weaning vaccination, pre-weaning and a booster, or at weaning and a booster a few weeks later so that we get a couple of them in there around weaning time for a respiratory protection. And it seems to be helping a great deal.

Shauna Hermel (08:19):

Now you mentioned that it's a prescription product. How does a person go about getting a prescription and designing a vaccine that they could use with their herd?

Bob Gentry (08:31):

Well, first of all, I mean, we can design a vaccine that anybody wants. But at the same time, because of the prescription platform laws, we can actually sell vaccine that we have already made. So you don't have to wait to have it made. It's available as is under certain off-the-shelf formulations that are the most common that are out there. And then if you have a variation or a different organism or a different strain that's not in the vaccine, then we can actually take that through the lab system and do gene sequencing. And from the gene sequencing, we can identify exactly where that organism fits into the plan. And if we need to change our vaccine, we can. Or if it matches what's already in there, we already have a good vaccine for it. So it's a matter of our entire system is based on surveillance.

Surveillance is the number one key. And we do a lot of lab work and we support a lot of lab work. We are continually looking for strains that may not match what we have. And as we know, all these viruses are evolving. No matter what we put in there today, it may not be the same tomorrow. We can change that because of the prescription platform system. We can change those pathogens in a matter of weeks actually. And so there’s a very short turnaround time to get a completely brand new vaccine that may give us an answer. And then following that, we continue to have more and more surveillance so that we know that we're staying on top of it. And as we find an emerging strain, we can turn right around and make that very quickly. It fits into the system in a way that other vaccines cannot do this.

Shauna Hermel (09:58):

So do you have a formalized system with veterinarians or how do you handle that?

Bob Gentry (10:05):

As we said, all ours are available on a prescription platform. There really isn't any other prescription vaccines out there. Vaccines are usually over the counter unless they're controlled in certain circumstances like brucellosis or some of the other ones. With our system of prescriptions, that allows us to create a new vaccine that's not otherwise available. It doesn’t need to go through the veterinarian. So veterinarians can either write a prescription for it or sign the order form that is a prescription and then ship it as needed. Or the veterinarian can simply buy it and keep it in their inventory just like other vaccines and distribute it to their customers that they have a veterinary-client patient relationship with.

Shauna Hermel (10:42):

Now, you had mentioned in your presentation today and thought it was fascinating on some of the diseases carried by ticks and things like that that we know are becoming much more of a problem across the Southeast and north central Plains.

Bob Gentry (11:00):

Well, we're seeing ticks move farther north and in different locations than they've been found in the past. They’re bringing with them the diseases that they carry. It should be released here in just a couple of months, but we’re working on a horn fly vaccine that actually will create antibodies against the horn fly as they suck the blood. And so those seasons are changing as our climate changes and as we're a little bit warmer. Our season for horn flies is a little bit longer, our season for ticks is longer and so we're seeing them move around. But the biggest thing is anaplasmosis in cattle. It’s a huge economic impact and it is carried by the dog tick, the American dog tick, or the dermacentor. And so we have a vaccine for that too. The whole idea of that vaccine is to decrease the amount of PLT that any cow herd would be exposed to.

And now that in the last 10 years or so, we've had Asian Longhorn, which is a foreign parasite that has come into this country and spread the disease, theileriosis is often fatal, and it has no treatment. And then recently I've been told by veterinarians that are dealing with it in areas where they've had it for a few years that now it's impacting the reproduction and we're getting cows that are not pregnant and more open cows. And it's creating a situation of not just an acute disease with death loss, but it's also creating a situation of non-pregnant cows. And that's a huge economic impact.

Shauna Hermel (12:27):

Fertility is number one, isn't it?

Bob Gentry (12:29):

It is, exactly.

Shauna Hermel (12:30):

Now you were mentioning how that actually works in lessening the population of ticks. Can you go through that process?

Bob Gentry (12:39):

This technology was discovered probably in the mid-80s, at least 30 years ago. And they realized that they're certain proteins in the midgut of the tick. So all these parasites have to suck blood to survive. And so these proteins are identified. So we would synthetically make this protein, which is exactly what's in the tick's gut. The cow will build antibodies to that tick's gut. And so when the tick tries to feed, which it has to do, it gets antibodies against itself. And then those antibodies will damage the digestive tract and then subsequently damage the entire tick and then create a situation where they can't breed or breed less. Feed less, breed less. Create fewer eggs and fewer babies. And then over time, we can decrease the tick population in any given area.

Shauna Hermel (13:32):

That would be amazing. Does it kind of work like a reverse Alpha-gal syndrome?

Bob Gentry (13:37):

Yeah, actually. That's crazy. And we do have the vaccine for the Lone Star tick. And that question has come up. That if we could decrease that tick, are we going to decrease the chance that that syndrome is going to occur out there? And I would hope that the answer is yes.

Shauna Hermel (13:53):

That would be amazing. With the Alpha-gal syndrome is there any impact that we can vaccinate humans to be resistant to some of those types of diseases as well?

Bob Gentry (14:05):

That's an interesting idea. I mean, there's a lot of opportunities out there. Right now we have vaccines for EHDV in deer. A very successful vaccine. We have a vaccine for RHDV, the rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus in rabbits. We have the only vaccine in the U.S. that's for that. It's very effective. And then on the livestock side, we have an extensive line of pig vaccines. They're very, very successful. On the cattle side, we have the vaccines that we've discussed. And so whether some of that technology can jump over into dogs and cats or some of the other things where human exposure to ticks is often, if not the outdoors, it's family pets. So if we can eventually utilize this technology into a different carrier, which would be carrier that is safe and effective for dogs, cats and so forth, that's definitely a possibility. It's definitely on our radar to look at to see if we can decrease human exposure through better protection of pets.

Shauna Hermel (15:06):

Our family, I guess we're in tick country. I didn't know my dad has tested positive for everything from Lyme disease to Q Fever.

Bob Gentry (15:14):

Goodness.

Shauna Hermel (15:14):

We need to get a control on those. So that's kind of an exciting product in my eyes. As far as administration, anything tricky about how you give these products or how you store them?

Bob Gentry (15:26):

No, there's no storage. I mean, we don't have to store at -80 degrees. We don't have to store anything special. It's just a vaccine that goes in the refrigerator. It's ready to use, there's no mixing and all the cattle vaccines are just off the shelf ready to use. Take it out of the bottle and utilize that. As I said earlier, we talked about killed vaccine. So it's the equivalent of any other killed vaccine in the fact that it creates great immunity for exactly the right antigen without having any of the other side effects or worries that you might have with other vaccines.

Shauna Hermel (16:02):

For somebody who is interested in exploring the product – and most of our audience would be cattle producers, cowmen out there in the country – how should they start to reach out to learn about the product? To start the process of saying, “Is this something that I can already add to my already scheduled vaccination program?”

Bob Gentry (16:22):

So as I mentioned, right now all our vaccines are sold through veterinarians because of prescription. And so they're shipped out of our Medgene office in Brookings, S.D. So in order to get the vaccine, we'll have to involve the veterinarian. So we get a lot of producers that call, and between the producer and our sales staff, we can get the veterinarian that they use involved and then have their proper prescription and paperwork all done. And then from there, the veterinarian will order the vaccine and get that shipped to them. Then they can purchase from the veterinarian. And the system's working really well so far. We're not into distribution yet, but someday maybe we will.

Shauna Hermel (16:59):

Well, that sounds excellent. We like to kind of wrap up our Angus At Work podcast with something that's really positive out there in either your life, your personal life or your professional life.

Bob Gentry (17:10):

Oh, you caught me off guard with this one.

Shauna Hermel (17:13):

Will it be the K-State win here in a couple hours?

Bob Gentry (17:15):

Well, I hope the K-State win in a couple hours. Last weekend was a little snug towards the very end! But no, it's great to be in Texas with you here. We’ve had a lot of success with our vaccine with people who are here in this room, at the trade show and here at the meeting. And so we're not brand new, but we are fairly new and I appreciate the opportunity to reach out. And so the real success is going to be that the goal of vaccine is to prevent, right? So we're here to prevent disease. And so if we can prevent warts and that permanent damage to a breeding animal? Or we can prevent coronavirus either in scours or pneumonia? Or we can prevent a disease carried by ticks? We're trying to lead the way in all this.

Shauna Hermel (18:00):

You bet. Well, thank you for taking time with us this afternoon. I appreciate your time and I'm sure our listeners are going to be excited to hear about this new strategy.

Bob Gentry (18:08):

Thank you for having me on.

Lynsey McAnally (18:16):

Listeners, for more information on making Angus work for you, check out the Angus Beef Bulletin and the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. You can subscribe to both publications in the show notes. If you have questions or comments, let us know at abbeditorial@angus.org. We would appreciate it if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with any other profit-minded cattlemen. Thanks for listening, this has been Angus At Work!