Vietnam announces that it has developed a vaccine first

It is the first world. Vietnam announced Wednesday 1^Verse June after it developed, in partnership with US researchers, a vaccine given to pigs to combat African swine fever. On Friday, the Vietnamese authorities are expected to issue a marketing permit for the vaccine for Vietnam only.

But Hanoi also wants to be able to sell them abroad, in order to help countries where the epidemic is wreaking havoc with livestock. “The production of the vaccine is a historic event (…). We also aim to export »Vice Minister of Agriculture Fung Duc Tian said on Wednesday. He did not give an export schedule or an estimate of Vietnam’s production capacity.

African swine fever, harmless to humans but devastating to livestock, was first detected in Vietnam in February 2019. Since then, the country has had to cull millions of animals. To date, there has been no commercial vaccine available worldwide to prevent this disease.

Six months of immunity

The Vietnamese vaccine has been developed since 2020 in partnership with US experts. Five clinical trials were performed. The duration of his immunity is six months.Mr. Tian said. Its safety and effectiveness have been confirmed by the USDA Agricultural Research Service, he said.

Although the outbreak of swine fever has abated in Vietnam, allowing farmers to replenish their herds, the virus continues to wreak havoc in some parts of the world.

Between January 2020 and April 2022, more than 1.1 million cases, reported in 35 countries on five continents, were recorded in domestic pigs, according to data from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).