Vietnam’s African Swine Fever Vaccine Nears Approval, Offers Hope for Global Pork Industry

JAKARTA, Jurnas.com – A vaccine against African swine fever which is being tested in Vietnam is almost approved. This would be a major breakthrough for tackling the deadly animal disease that regularly ravages pig farms around the world.

African swine fever has for years disrupted the US$250 billion global pork market. In the worst outbreak in 2018-19, about half the domestic pig population died in China, causing losses estimated at over US$100 billion.

“After decades of failure due to the complexity of the virus, two vaccines jointly developed by US scientists that were tested in a large pilot scheme by a Vietnamese company show very promising results,” said Head of Science Department at the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). , Gregorio Torres told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“We’ve never been this close to getting a vaccine that might work,” said Torres, noting that the two shots “had probably the highest chance of success” and being cleared for sale worldwide.

Both vaccines have received approval in Vietnam for pilot commercial use, now finalized. The next steps are national authorization, the first for an African swine fever vaccine, and possible overseas sale.

US Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack said there could be interest in making precautionary purchases in the US, even though the country has so far been spared from the virus.

“Obviously there will be particular interest,” Vilsack said in an interview with Reuters in April, talking about a potential purchase of Vietnam’s vaccine.

The vaccine was tested in Vietnam, where swine fever is a constant threat, because it couldn’t be developed in the US because the virus wasn’t there.

Since 2021, swine fever, which is not lethal to humans, has been reported in nearly 50 countries and caused an estimated 1.3 million pig deaths, WOAH said in a regular report last week.

There are currently no major outbreaks, but agribusiness lender Rabobank warned in April that the possibility of the disease spreading, especially in China, remains one of the main risks for the global pork industry.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) researchers have reviewed the results of one of the vaccines, NAVET-ASFVAC, which they jointly developed with Vietnamese company NAVETCO.

The USDA said after the vaccine showed high efficacy rates and no safety risks in trials, 600,000 doses were approved for initial sale to pig farmers in Vietnam, where the first 40,000 doses had been shipped without safety concerns.

It came after the initial hiccup when use of the vaccine was discontinued after dozens of pigs died last summer following inoculations on farms using the off-label vaccine, the USDA said, giving it to pigs that shouldn’t be inoculated, such as pregnant pigs.

“No issues arose after the shipment was continued with adequate animal monitoring,” the USDA said.

NAVET-ASFVAC is a live attenuated virus vaccine, as used in routine vaccination of children worldwide. The use of unlicensed live virus vaccines in China in recent years has raised fears they could lead to the emergence of a new strain of swine fever.

Only limited data are available from a Chinese trial on a live virus vaccine against swine fever.

The second vaccine being tested in Vietnam, AVAC ASF LIVE, which was discovered by US researchers and commercialized by Vietnamese company AVAC, has been delivered to more pigs than NAVET-ASFVAC under its pilot implementation, but the USDA said it has not yet reviewed the data.

NAVETCO, AVAC and Vietnam’s agriculture ministry, which is in charge of animal vaccine approvals, did not respond to requests for comment.

Sumber: Reuters

TAGS : African Swine Fever Vaccine ASF Vietnam United States