Chlorine is added routinely to drinking water as a disinfectant, at a dosage rate of 0.5 - 2.5 ppm (part per million) to make the water drinkable.

At this concentration, chlorine is a strong inactivating agent for live vaccines. Indeed chlorine is a bactericidal at 0.1-0.2 ppm. and a virucidal agent at 0.3-0.5 ppm of free chlorine.

Therefore, before the administration of live vaccines, you must neutralize all free chlorine in the water, in order to protect the vaccine’s organisms. Chlorine can be inactivated by combining it with proteins, which would transform the free chlorine into inert chloramines.

Traditionally, poultry growers, for the neutralization of chlorine and protection of live vaccines, use powdered skim milk at the rate of 2.5 gr per litre of water.

It is important to note that active chlorine concentration in drinking water is very unstable and often can reach extremely high levels. Therefore it is very difficult to control, which means, frequent monitoring of chlorine levels are required.

Note that the taste and smell of chlorine cannot be used as indicator to evaluate chlorine concentration. It appears only at the level of 0.4-0.5 ppm, which is higher than the bactericidal or virucidal effect of chlorine.

The administration of a single tablet of CEVAMUNE® to one hundred liters of drinking water, would fully neutralize up to 34 ppm of free chlorine, and would re-balance the water pH back to its initial value, protecting the vaccine in contact with bird’s mucous membranes.

A blue tracerCEVAMUNE® allows the control of uniformity and rapidity of the blue coloured vaccine solution within the whole drinking system of the poultry house.

CEVAMUNE® allows the evaluation of vaccine intake by the individual bird. The blue coloured vaccine solution tints the tongue and the crop of the birds for one to two hours.

That would ensure optimal immunity and uniform protection to the whole flock.

How to use CEVAMUNE®

• Fill the water tank or buckets with the pre-calculated volume of water to be fully consumed within two hours.
• Use only clean, cool water of good quality.
• Prepare the water for vaccination; neutralize any chlorine present in the water, and rebalance its pH to neutral.
• Add one tablet of CEVAMUNE¢ç for every one hundred litres of water.
• Break the tablet if the water temperature is below 15¢ªC.
• Wait 10 minutes for complete chlorine neutralization and pH re-balancing, then homogenize with plastic agitator.
• Prepare the vaccine solution after having rinsed your hands with clean water (don¡¯t use any detergent or disinfectant).
• Take the vaccine out of the fridge and reconstitute the vaccine rapidly,
• Remove the cap of the vaccine vial.
• Open the vaccine vial under water in the plastic bucket containing the prepared water to be used for the reconstitution of the vaccine.
• Rinse the vial several times under the water to ensure that all the vaccine organisms are flushed out of the vial.
• Mix well.
• As soon as the solution is ready, you should incorporate the concentrate vaccine solution into the pre-treated water in the tank or buckets. Mix the solution energetically with plastic agitator to ensure homogenous distribution of the vaccine in the tank.

Vaccinate the birds in a timely fashion. When the vaccine solution is ready, you should administer it swiftly to the birds.

Ensure that the vaccine solution is properly distributed all around the poultry house. Check the arrival of the vaccine at the end of each drinking line. CEVAMUNE® adds a deep blue colour to the vaccine solution, which allows to control the vaccine distribution within the building.

Evaluation of vaccine intake should be performed during each vaccination. WithCEVAMUNE®, the blue coloured vaccine solution tints the tongue and crop of the birds for a period of one to two hours, which makes it possible to evaluate by random sampling in the flock, if the absorption of the vaccine was correct. Start to sample birds at the end of the vaccination procedures;

For birds on litter floor - take samples from four groups of twenty-five birds each, sampled from different parts of the building, including the far end.

For birds in cages - take samples of ten birds from ten cages from different parts and levels of the building.

Calculate the percentage of coloured birds out of those sampled out, which would give you an objective value of the vaccine intake.

If the vaccination procedure has been performed correctly, you can expect a minimum of 90% of the birds, that had been sampled three hours after the beginning of the vaccine administration, to present blue tongues and crops.

Following vaccinationCheck that the tank is completely emptied of vaccine solution.

Then add CEVAMUNE® to the tank again in a volume of water equivalent to two hours of the bird’s intake. To ensure that all the vaccine is fully consumed, include any vaccine that was left over in the drinking lines.

Don’t forget to fill the water tank with fresh water upon completion of the vaccination procedures.