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Industrial South America (ISA) Magazine - intervet with Intervet International
1 October 2001
Translated and reprinted from Industrial South America (ISA), Vol. 1, No. 5, Oct 2001, p.53-56
Talking with...
ISA talks with Piet Wetterhahn, Intervet's area director for Latin America and Dr William Enright, team leader of the Aquatic Animal Group in Intervet's international marketing department about the company's role within the Latin American aquaculture industry.
Intervet is the third biggest animal health company in the world and has very significant activities in the field of fish and shellfish health. Given the rise in the incidence of various aquatic animal diseases, and the associated production losses, ISA talks with Piet Wetterhahn and William Enright on the role of Intervet in the future of Latin America, and particularly within the aquaculture industry.
Piet Wetterhahn has been with Intervet for 17 years, the last six years serving as the area commercial) director for Latin America and Southern Africa. William Enright has over 200 scientific publications across many species and interests, and has been in Intervet for six years where his focus is now on technical and marketing support for the aquatic animal area.
ISA. How is Intervet positioned globally, particularly in relation to Latin America?
Piet: Intervet, having its origins in Europe over 50 years ago, is a truly global company, with over 5,000 employees in total, 700 located in Latin America. Intervet is represented by 54 commercial companies worldwide, including 11 in Latin America. Intervet also has four production sites and one research and development site in the region. Intervet products are already well known in the region and equate to quality and innovation. Indeed, our anti-parasitics (e.g., Panacur, Butox) and vaccines (e.g., Nobilis and Bovilis ranges) are 'household names'.
ISA. What potential does Intervet envisage for Latin America within animal agriculture in general, and specifically aquaculture?
Piet: Intervet is very aware that animal agriculture and the keeping of household pets is increasing at an above-average rate in Latin America. Besides this, Latin America has the potential to provide the animal protein demand for Europe and other parts of the world. That is why we are continuing to invest more and more in the area, in terms of people, facilities and product focus.
William: Regarding the aquaculture industry we know that the demand for aquatic products and especially aquatic protein) is rising rapidly (due to increased consumption per capita and increasing populations), out-stripping the supply. About 35% of fish production currently comes from aquaculture while supplies from capture fisheries have now reached a plateau. Thus, to make up the shortfall in supply, it is recognised that global aquaculture production will need to double or triple over the next few decades.
Piet: We also recognise that aquaculture production is growing at a faster rate in Latin America (about 30% per annum between 1990 and 1998) than in the rest of the world (about 15%), albeit from a low baseline. In recent years, Chile (salmonid species) has been the powerhouse of Latin American aquaculture, being ranked at number 13 globally in 1998, while Ecuador has been strong in shrimp farming. Furthermore, it is fully expected that, within five years, Chile will challenge Norway for the number one ranking in salmon and trout production.
William: When one looks at the huge coastline and vast inland rivers and lakes in the region, it is clear that aquaculture production in the region can and will increase immensely in the future. If Chile can become the Norway of the south and Ecuador the Thailand of the west, than perhaps Brazil can become the China of the future in terms of aquaculture production?
ISA. Is the Latin American region unique in any way in relation to your business?
Piet: Every continent and every country is unique to some extent in terms of the mix of animal species and specific diseases. For example, Latin America has huge cattle and poultry populations. Thus, our major product groups tend to be cattle anti-parasitics, vaccines, anti infectives and reproduction hormones, poultry vaccines and feed additives. However, this mix will certainly change over time, especially as the companion animal sector grows.
William: The traditional animal species of agricultural importance, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, etc., tend to be now globally distributed; in principle, the major diseases of these species are also widespread. In contrast, as there are over 300 unique species of fish and shellfish commercially farmed globally and, as the industry is relatively young, there are still major regional and national differences in aquaculture species, practices and diseases. However, this is changing as we can already see that species and disease problems are becoming increasingly similar between Norway and Chile for salmonids, and between Ecuador and Southeast Asia for shrimp.
ISA. Given your above revelations, how do you think Intervet can help Latin American aquaculture producers over the next decade?
Piet: In the same way as we have helped and will continue to help all animal owners and producers: by providing knowledge and service related to a complete range of high quality and efficacious products to protect the health and welfare of their animals. We are proud of the R&D, knowledge and the service behind every one of our products.
William: We will apply the same strong principles to our aquatic animal product range. We are the most highly ranked animal health company in the world that has an aquatic animal division; indeed, we have three dedicated aquatic animal health R&D centres, globally distributed, and the ability to distribute and support our aquatic animal products worldwide. This gives us the ability to generate the necessary products to combat the major infectious diseases that affect the varied aquaculture species in Latin America, be they salmonids in Chile, tilapia in Brazil, or shrimp in Ecuador and Mexico.
William: For example, we are currently selling a vaccine (Compact IPN) in Chile against infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) virus, the major viral disease of salmon there. We were the first company on the market in Norway with an IPN vaccine and we currently have about 60% of the total salmonid vaccine market there. Furthermore, in collaboration with leading scientists in Wageningen University in The Netherlands, we are working hard on developing a vaccine against the infamous white spot disease in shrimp, something that has devastated the industry in Latin America in recent years.
Piet: I suppose one of the things that differentiates Intervet from other companies, is that we only introduce products that we know to be efficacious and that provide good value for money to the farmer.
ISA. Is there something that the national governments in Latin America can do for Intervet and other animal health companies in terms of getting registration and marketing authorisation for your products?
Piet: Intervet is a major and ethical global animal health company. We stand for high quality products backed up by service from knowledgeable and professional employees. We also see ourselves very much as an important partner to farmers (and other animal owners) as they seek to produce high quality and safe food for the global consumer, in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner. Thus, we fully agree with having strict national and/or regional regulations in place for the research, production and marketing authorisation of animal health products.
William: We want to work hand-in-hand with the responsible regulatory authorities of national governments to safeguard the health and safety of the owner, consumer and animal. However, we realise that the regulations for licensing aquatic animal health products are not yet fully in place in all countries. We think that it is in the interest of all concerned to see as much regulatory harmonisation as possible between countries, especially in one region, and we will do whatever we can to help. At the end of the day, what each interested party wants is to have good products (a) meeting all the requirements (quality, safety, efficacy) and (b) being available to the animal producer/owner as quickly as possible.
Industrial South America (ISA) interview (Spanish & Portuguese) (324Kb) ISA Habla con Piet Wetterhahn, director de área en Intervet para América Latina y con el Dr William Enright, team leader de la sección de Aquatic Animal Group en el departamento de mercadeo internacional de Intervet, acerca del papel que juega la compañía dentro de la industria de acuacultura latinoamericana.