1A Goodsons Mews, Wellington Street, Thame, OX9 3BX
1A Goodsons Mews, Wellington Street, Thame, OX9 3BX
Personal Care
Colorado Serum Company manufactures animal biologicals. The Company offers serum antibodies, bacterins, toxoids, bacterin-toxoids, antitoxins, spore, and modified live vaccines for licensed veterinarians. Colorado Serum markets its products to animal health companies across the globe.
In 2009, the company management was looking to replace its existing bioreactor mixing system – used to produce a vaccine against leptospirosis, a bacterial disease transmitted through the urine of wildlife animals such as skunks and raccoons. The disease infects cattle and swing, causing kidney and liver failure and ultimately death.
The organisms in the vaccine are highly aerobic and required the correct amount of oxygen at the right time to grow. The company required a solution that would support its existing mixing process, starting at very low revolutions per minute (RPM) to allow the organisms to acclimatise to their new controlled environment.
Support Existing Processes
Enable Organisms to Acclimatise
Alfa Laval determined that its magnetic mixing solution would be the perfect fit. By eliminating friction, the magnetic mixer’s levitating impeller design made it possible to mix at velocities ranging from an extremely slow 10 RPM right up to 600 RPM. Via a series of gradual aeration additions and RPM increases, the biological growth can be accelerated.
The mixer and proper introduction of air over increments of time provide the perfect combination to increase growth to levels never seen before. Specifically, the Alfa Laval mixer allowed the business to generate a greater cell count, which equates to more doses and vaccines that the company could sell. They consistently see a 30 to 50 percent increase in cell count.
The company has reported other benefits through using Alfa Laval’s UltraPure Magnetic Mixer. Its levitating design provides better scale-up capabilities by allowing cultures to freely flow and prosper, while the flow-optimized impeller, and in particular its wing shape, eliminates cell shearing while allowing cultures to move and reproduce faster.
As there are no entrapment areas or crevices, the mixer can be completely drained of product and cleaning solutions, while the open design ensures full coverage by the cleaning solution and aids the removal of product residues.