THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said the Philippines will join the international collaboration to develop and field trial a vaccine for African swine fever (ASF).
A new study by the Pirbright Institute in the United Kingdom has shown that 100 percent of pigs immunized with a vaccine developed at the institute were protected from a lethal dose of the ASF virus.
“The DA is looking forward to collaborate and take part in the field trials of the prospective ASF vaccine developed once available. We believe that this will provide first-hand information on the efficacy of the vaccine against the strain present in the Philippines. DA will be closely collaborating with the research institutions on this matter,” the agency said.
It added the vaccine will greatly help the local swine industry as its commercial unavailability has forced the agency to implement stricter biosecurity measures and culling of susceptible animals to curb the virus.
As of April 27, 8 regions, 25 provinces, 210 cities and 876 barangays in the country have been affected with ASF which led to the culling of more than 280,000 hogs out of the 12 million hog population in the country.
However, DA assured areas previously affected with the disease are allowed to raise hogs anew provided the local government unit can testify that no case of the disease has been recorded for at least three months
