SHERBROOKE, Quebec, July 05, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Laboratoire M2, the maker of THYMOX HOOF®, announces Health Canada’s approval of THYMOX HOOF as a veterinary drug, a breakthrough in the control of the highly infectious disease, Digital Dermatitis (DD), which causes lameness and significant losses in dairy cow productivity.
"With nearly one million dairy cows in Canada, there is a huge market potential for THYMOX HOOF," said Frank Palantoni, CEO of Laboratoire M2. “We are tremendously pleased to offer THYMOX HOOF for sale through Canadian veterinary clinics. The drug will be available through the Centre de Distribution des Médicaments Vétérinaires (CDMV).” Palantoni added, “We are also very proud to contribute to the productivity of the Canadian dairy industry, as well as the preservation of Canada’s important natural resources, especially the soil. For decades, farmers only had access to hard-to-handle, toxic and carcinogenic chemicals in dairy cow hoof baths that were damaging to the environment. THYMOX HOOF is now widely available, biodegradable, and requires only a simple dilution in water, important advantages to dairy industry productivity.”
Until now, a farm had almost no choice but to use chemicals like copper sulfate, a heavy metal, which is difficult to dissolve, toxic, caustic, and does not degrade when the hoof bath water is released into the soil. Another chemical, formaldehyde, has also been used for decades and is a known carcinogen, and an atmospheric pollutant. There are an estimated 270 million dairy cows worldwide that are susceptible to Digital Dermatitis, which produce about $240 billion USD of milk annually. The expanding availability of THYMOX HOOF throughout the global dairy industry will offer an enormous savings potential to farmers with the promise of improved hoof health and, thus, productivity for their cows, not to mention the removal of millions of tons of toxic chemicals from their workplace and the environment. And with now frequent reports of DD in beef farms, the market for THYMOX HOOF could soon get even larger.
The effectiveness of THYMOX HOOF is based on the action of thymol, an active ingredient found in the plant thyme. THYMOX HOOF has strong anti-microbial properties that kill pathogenic microorganisms such as treponemes. These microorganisms cause DD foot lesions which induce lameness, and as a result lower milk productivity.
“As the first drug approved for hoof-baths, we are very pleased to offer farmers a safe and effective solution for Digital Dermatitis,” said Dr. Marianne Allard, Chief Science Officer at Laboratoire M2. “Our approval comes after many years of development of the original THYMOX™ anti-microbial technology, followed by several years of laboratory and field testing of THYMOX HOOF’s safety and efficacy in support of the data package required for THYMOX HOOF to be registered as a veterinary drug (DIN 02453479).”
About Laboratoire M2
Laboratoire M2, based in Sherbrooke, Canada, has a well-respected reputation for product innovation and expertise in environmentally sustainable, green disinfection and bio-security technology under the trademark THYMOX™. The company currently markets a range of leading biodegradable, disinfecting and anti-microbial products based on their proprietary technology platform, which are compliant with UL environmental criteria for Ecologo 2794. In addition to its line of animal health products, the company also manufactures and distributes products and ingredients under private label agreements in institutional, retail and crop protection markets.
For more information about Laboratoire M2 visit: thymox.com