African swine fever vaccine trial launched in Batangas

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture (DA) launched the controlled trial of an African swine fever (ASF) live vaccine on Friday, August 30, in Lobo, Batangas, one of the red zone areas in the province.

The controlled trial comes five years after the first ASF case was recorded in the Philippines.

A total of 41 healthy pigs from two farms in Lobo, or those that tested negative for the virus after a blood test, were inoculated on Friday.

“On the [14th] day ay kukunan ng dugo at i-a-analyze kung ito ay nag-produce ng antibody,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Dante Palabrica said on Friday. “And then regularly i-che-check natin ang condition ng mga baboy.”

(On the 14th day, we’ll extract blood and analyze if antibodies were produced. And then we’ll regularly check the condition of the hogs.)

The Vietnam-made vaccine is so far the only one approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for monitored release.

FDA Director Maria Cecilia Matienzo, who was part of the rollout in Batangas on Friday, said that the Bureau of Animal Industry will have to submit its review of the vaccine from the controlled trial for the FDA’s evaluation.

“[L]ater on kung makita nating okay talaga, i-che-change natin ‘yung authorization from monitored release to the regular CPR (Certificate of Product Registration) for commercial use,” said Matienzo.

(Later on if we see that it’s okay, we’ll change the authorization from monitored release to the regular CPR for commercial use.)

The DA is expecting to receive 150,000 more vaccine doses as part of the controlled trial.

“‘Yun ’yung parte ng competitive bidding na ginagawa ng Bureau of Animal Industry doon sa P300 million na nalaan ng DA dito sa programang ito,” said department spokesman Arnel de Mesa.

(That’s part of the Bureau of Animal Industry’s competitive bidding using the P300 million allotted by the DA for this program.)

ASF is a viral disease of farm-raised and wild pigs with a 100% fatality rate. It has become a global concern after outbreaks were detected in many countries including China, Vietnam, and Korea.

The Philippine hog industry has been incurring huge losses since the 2019 outbreak. Recently, market prices dropped due to an increase in active ASF cases. – Rappler.com