Every producer knows that traditional injectable vaccines are problematic. Applying them is cumbersome, requires mobilizing animals, consumes a lot of time and causes stress, which drastically reduces adoption rates. For example, in the aquaculture market, only 30% of the world’s tilapias are vaccinated, and only in the juvenile stage. Salmon are not vaccinated during fattening, and only 14% of cows in the United States are protected against clostridial diseases, despite it being the most important disease in cattle. This situation leads to losing more than 300 billion dollars due to diseases every year around the world.
Being the fifth company founded by the veterinarian Luis Barletta, Feedvax eliminates the dependency on animal manipulation to apply preventive treatments. It has developed two independent but complementary products: an oral vaccine platform that is administered in food, and Vetkioska smart feeder that recognizes each animal and can provide individualized and programmable health and nutritional treatments.
“It’s like having Netflix for animal health. When Netflix removed movie rental restrictions such as long lines, limited quantities of each title, and the need to return movies, hours of entertainment increased by 664%. If something similar happened with vaccines, there would be a radical change in losses due to diseases and in the reduction in the use of antibiotics, the main substitute,” comments Barletta in dialogue with Forbes Argentina.
The smart feeder provides unprecedented precision in nutrition and health at an individual level. You can program the delivery of an entire dosing schedule, solving the second major problem of prevention: treatments incorrectly applied in a timely manner. In addition, it detects diseases early and monitors the evolution of the animal.
Integrated health and food system
Feedvax revolutionizes the producer experience by offering a single system that integrates feeding, medication and vaccination management, generating combined data that allows for more complete and predictive analysis. This comprehensive solution greatly simplifies operations, improves decision making, and optimizes overall performance, delivering a seamless and efficient user experience.
As Barletta explains, Feedvax has already secured sales of more than $22 million annually for its first two vaccines, demonstrating the traction of its transformative technology. In addition, its smart feeders are already on the market generating recurring income, starting with cattle. “With Feedvax, the future of animal production is oral, automated and data-driven. And just as Netflix transformed the entertainment industry, Feedvax is on its way to redefining animal health as we know it,” highlights the veterinarian from his headquarters in Neuquen.
“I am a serial entrepreneur. I have started with the financing model Friends & Family with which I managed to gather more than 2 million dollars to launch the project. Today I realize that success or failure is a very thin line, and insistence and persistence are key.”
Barletta began his business career with portalveterinaria.com, a dot.com that he sold in 2008 to Spanish businessmen, marking his first success. Later, he founded Patagonia Agrobusiness, a company that used apple juice byproducts as a base for animal feed. This approach allowed the cost of the diet to be reduced by 85%, providing energy with little protein and 85% water, ideal for cow and sheep feedlots.
In addition, Patagonia Agrobusiness implemented a production chain where they bought meat in the Pampa Húmeda, slaughtered and cut it and then brought it under vacuum to Patagonia. However, Barletta noted that veterinary products lacked a proper user experience. “Oral vaccines are an innovation that Feedvax brings as a replacement for traditional injectable vaccines,” explained Barletta. “Until now, no one had questioned whether it was necessary to pen the animals and put them through a chute to apply a veterinary product. This resulted in low adoption, with only 14% of cows and 13% of tilapia fish vaccinated”.
Feedvax has developed oral vaccines for cattle and aquaculture, intervening with biotechnology. With a seed fund, the company achieved a pre-sale of two contracts for $22 million, with a vaccine for fish and another for pigs, sold to a Brazilian company and a global company, respectively.
“This is the most ambitious project, a paradigm shift in animal production. It eliminates the problem of handling animals, which is expensive and laborious. For example, it can take a week to round up cows to vaccinate them. With our vaccines oral, which are administered through food, we have solved this problem at its roots and we have the patent for it,” says Barletta.
game changer
Barletta highlighted that the progress in biotechnology has been crucial. “Many laboratories did not have the technology to transform the molecules for oral application. The low penetration of injectable technologies represents a $300 billion market in animal production globally. Feedvax comes to solve the restrictions of non-users with our vaccinations oral.”
An additional innovative component is the smart feeder, which identifies each of the animals and allows health or nutritional treatments to be applied efficiently. “This is applicable in both pastoral and feedlot systems.”
Feedvax’s business is 100% B2B. “Currently, we have dialogue with the 10 main drug and vaccine companies. We are a complement to the laboratories.” The company has also developed a complete vaccine for tilapia, a fish with annual production that represents an $11 billion market. This advancement is significant for the aquaculture industry and a significant opportunity for the company.
The company’s vision is clear: revolutionize animal production from within, hacking classic production processes to obtain results with a true sustainable impact. As rebellious scientists, they have chosen practicality and sustainability. This conviction allows them to offer producers easy and practical tools to achieve greater efficiency with precision animal production. When each specimen is treated according to its needs, the results are healthier animals, food, people and ecosystems.
Barletta knows that the demand for animal production will continue to grow, which is why he focused on scientific and simple solutions to transform animal production. They have developed an oral vaccine platform for fish that simplifies the life of the producer, reduces the animal’s stress and avoids the use of antibiotics.
“We eliminate the manipulation of the fish. Less stress for the animal and for the producer. No more wounds caused by injections, fewer injuries to the operators and less damaged fillets. Water and animals clean of antibiotics. In this way, it is possible to vaccinate the fish more than once in their life,” concludes Barletta.