Antonia Fettelschoss-Gabriel, PhD, said this is the only IBH vaccine for horses so far to successfully ward off the inflammation and itching caused by biting midges’ saliva in affected horses. | Photo: iStock

If you’ve been itching for an effective insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) vaccine for your horses, you might soon get some relief. Swiss researchers have developed and tested a novel IBH vaccine for horses that minimized the disease’s effects in their trial herd.

It’s the only IBH vaccine for horses so far to successfully ward off the inflammation and itching caused by biting midges’ saliva in affected horses, said Antonia Fettelschoss-Gabriel, PhD, researcher in the University Hospital Zurich Department of Dermatology, in Schlieren, and at Evax Biotech, in Münchwilen, both in Switzerland.

It’s also the first successful immunotherapeutic approach targeting a chronic disease in horses, working by preventing certain cells from getting recruited to the skin and causing tissue damage, she said