The Department of Agriculture (DA) said local vaccine trials for African swine fever (ASF) have started last week with 10 participating commercial swine farms.
The DA said the trials are being made in collaboration with Zoetis Philippines Inc., subsidiary of Zoetis Inc. which in 2019, was granted by the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service with a non-exclusive license agreement for the development and commercial production of ASF vaccines. It gave the company access to three patents related to ASF live attenuated vaccine strains.
“Once proven effective, the ASF vaccine will serve as a potent tool, complementing our joint efforts with local government units, private sector, and hog raisers to effectively control, contain and manage the spread of the ASF, thus paving way for the industry’s faster recovery,” said DA Secretary William Dar.
Dar said in a statement the vaccine trials will be conducted and monitored by personnel and veterinarians from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) for 84 days, in line with the current protocols set by the government technical working group and Zoetis.
DA said the company is a major collaborator of the experimental new vaccine for ASF which has prevented deaths of pigs from ASF in early trials in other countries.
Zoetis did not disclose what other countries have also tapped their trial vaccinations but according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, other countries affected with the ASF apart from the Philippines include China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Laos, Myanmar, North Korea, East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, India and Malaysia
Dar said DA is coordinating with provincial veterinarians on the conduct of vaccine trials to ensure successful implementation after undergoing orientations for deployment.
“The trials in the respective farms will depend on the agreement by the concerned parties, the availability of trial animals, schedule of the farm and BAI veterinarian and Zoetis representatives,” he added.
DA said ASF cases have gone down to 935 cases as of the first quarter of 2021 from the peak of 3,060 cases in the third quarter of 2020.
