Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) and Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Government of India released the “Live attenuated Classical Swine Fever Cell Culture Vaccine (Indigenous Strain) at the Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi.
In his address, Dr. Mohapatra emphasized on the Classical Swine Fever (CSF) as one of the deadliest diseases in pigs that causes high mortality. He outlined that the country has been using a lapinized CSF Vaccine (Weybridge Strain, U.K.) since 1964 to control the disease. But, the procedure to produce the vaccine required sacrificing considerably a large number of rabbits. Besides this, around 1.2 million doses could only be produced as against the required 22 million doses per year in the country. The newly released Vaccine virus, having high titre, is capable of producing lakhs of doses very easily in the cell culture without sacrificing the rabbits.
The Director General said that the Vaccine has been tested on around 500 pigs at multiple locations. Dr. Mohapatra highlighted about the high demand for the transfer of the Vaccine technology from the various State Governments, Private manufacturers and the Government of Nepal.
Chaturvedi remarked the initiative by the ICAR-IVRI as a real help for the farmers to save their animals from the deadliest diseases. He emphasized that the release of the Vaccine will be beneficial for the farming community and would help to eliminate or control the disease by 2024-25. He urged to speed-up the commercialization of the technique at a large scale that would also help in realizing the vision of diseases free animal husbandry segment in the country.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr. Ashok Kumar, ADG (Animal Husbandry), ICAR briefed about the main features of the Vaccine. Dr. Kumar highlighted that the high titre of Vaccine virus has made the Vaccine as one of the most economical CSF Vaccine costing around less than Rs. 2/- per dose as compared to Rs. 15 - 25/- of lapinized CSF Vaccine and Rs. 30/- per dose (approximately) for an imported Korean Vaccine that is being used in the country. He accentuated that the Vaccine is safe, potent, does not revert to virulence and provides protective immunity from day 14 of the Vaccination.
The senior officials of ICAR Headquarters, ICAR-IVRI and Department of Animal Husbandry were also present during the occasion.
