{"id":961017,"date":"2026-11-11T21:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T21:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/961017\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T21:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T21:28:16","slug":"australia-set-to-run-out-of-q-fever-vaccine-sometime-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/961017\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia set to run out of Q fever vaccine sometime this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

The vaccine that protects Australians from a serious bacterial infection is expected to run out this week.<\/p>\n

Q fever is spread by animals, including sheep and cattle, and causes severe flu-like symptoms that can become chronic and, in some cases, lead to serious cardiovascular complications.<\/p>\n

Last year Australia recorded 991 Q fever cases; the highest number since national monitoring began in 1991<\/p>\n

Australian manufacturer CSL Seqirus is contracted by Australia’s Department of Health (ADH) to supply the vaccine.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, we actually expect a short temporary stock out starting now through to the end of the year,” senior vice-president of operations Chris Larkins said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve expedited the next two batches that are being manufactured. They’ll be available, we believe, late December.<\/p>\n

“We are very sorry. We know it affects public health, especially in the country and also affects businesses financially out there.”<\/p>\n

Mr Larkins said stabilising supply was the company’s highest priority “given how critical it is to public health and getting our agricultural businesses back up and functioning”.<\/p>\n

Farmers left in the dark<\/p>\n

Rawsonville dairy owner Erika Chesworth said she had been unable to vaccinate her staff since March.<\/p>\n

“We’ve just had very short responses from the only local clinic saying they are unable to source the vaccine,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Erika Chesworth from Little Big Dairy.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“It’s just been dead ends everywhere; there’s been no communication from anyone in any capacity.”<\/p>\n

Ms Chesworth said the situation left staff and the business “vulnerable to a disease that animals can’t be vaccinated for”.<\/p>\n

“It puts us at a high risk. It’s hard enough to secure staff with skills,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We had an experience two summers ago when two staff members contracted Q fever and they were really sick.<\/p>\n

“We had a seven-year-old grandson contract Q fever \u2026 people can’t be done until they’re 15, there are so many problems.”<\/p>\n

A perfect storm<\/p>\n

Mr Larkins said the Q fever vaccine was “an exceptionally complex product to manufacture”, with each batch taking nine months to produce using an inactivated form of the bacteria.<\/p>\n

“Over the last 12 months we’ve seen an unfortunate situation where we’ve had a combination of raw material supply issues \u2026 and then we’ve had unexpected manufacturing equipment issues on our filling lines with our electronic system,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Close-up<\/p>\n

A Q-fever vaccination is already mandatory for those working in meat processors across Australia. (ABC Rural: Tom Major)<\/p>\n

“It’s been a perfect storm where we’ve been unable to release about three or four batches to the market that were coming through this nine-month cycle period.<\/p>\n

“We think from later this year or early next year the constrained supply situation will ease up and we’ll be able to get that product out to customers.”<\/p>\n

Mr Larkins said the company expected production issues to ease after moving operations to two new, state-of-the-art sites in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

A ‘public health’ issue<\/p>\n

Nurse and shearer Carol Mudford said she waited five years to get a Q fever vaccine after she started working in the sheds in 2020.<\/p>\n

“It’s either not been available or very difficult to get for the last five, six years,” she said.<\/p>\n

“People want it and need it and it will save lives.”<\/p>\n

Ms Mudford said Q fever was a public health problem, not just an agricultural issue.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people still don’t know about Q fever; we need more awareness because anyone in rural Australia is at risk,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

Carol Mudford (left) after receiving a Q fever vaccine in Dubbo. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“It is highly contagious as a bacteria that travels in the dust.<\/p>\n

“It spreads very well; it can linger on clothing that comes back to a family home, through dust that flies off a livestock truck or spread through mowing lawns.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Health Department said in a statement that CSL Seqirus was responsible for managing the manufacture and commercial supply of Q-VAX, “including distribution arrangements and the allocation of available stock”.<\/p>\n

“This arrangement with CSL Seqirus, over 10 years and worth $1 billion, supports the continued availability of domestic manufacturing capability,” they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The vaccine that protects Australians from a serious bacterial infection is expected to run out this week. Q…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":961018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,185227,137,68245,15158,43406,2185,4886],"class_list":["post-961017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-csl","tag-health","tag-immunisation","tag-livestock","tag-q-fever","tag-rural","tag-vaccine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/961018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}