VETERINARY pharmaceutical company Chemeq has announced that it has sustained a small contained fire at its manufacturing facility in Rockingham, which it says was extinguished in minutes. The company said there were no injuries to personnel, and damage to the plant was minimal. Initial indications are that an oil relief valve caused the fire in the active pharmaceutical ingredient building and some control cabling has been damaged, the company said in a statement. According to Chemeq, all other areas of the plant are unaffected and sufficient quantities of stored production material are stored at another building to ensure manufacturing of finished product will continue as scheduled, while the repair work is completed. The company also announced it has completed shipments of its polymeric antimicrobial product to customers in South Africa and New Zealand. The shipments are the first since the licensing of the company’s commercial manufacturing facility at Rockingham in Western Australia. A small consignment of 640 litres of polymeric antimicrobial was shipped to Chemeq’s South African distributor. In addition, 200 litres of polymeric antimicrobial was sold and shipped to a customer in New Zealand, the company said. Chemeq produces a polymeric antimicrobial product for the prevention and control of intestinal bacterial diseases in feedstock animals, pigs and poultry.