This summer, up to 1,000 pigs died in Vietnam after receiving the first commercial vaccine to prevent African swine fever (ASF). Exact number death of pigs is likely between 750 and 1,342 according to the Vietnamnews news service.
The farmer’s healthy pigs are dying
Pigs, on a farm in the center province Phu Yen and at least two other provinces received TURNIP-ASFVAC vaccine, which was developed by the Vietnamese company Navetco and the American Agricultural Research Institute (ARS), which is part of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Le Hung Vuong, 57, a pig farmer in Hoa Thinh Dong Village, Phu Hoa District, he said that a few days after the vaccine was administered, all his healthy pigs developed fevers, bled, and many died.
African swine fever, a highly contagious, double-stranded DNA virus, causes hemorrhagic fever and death in pigs, but not affect people.
First identified in East Africa in the early 1900s, disease spread from Africa and European nations in the 1960s and 1970s to Brazil and the Dominican Republic in 1978, according to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA Division.
AFS swept through China mercilessly in 2018, This was reported by the Bloomberg agency, “herd cuts at the world’s largest pork producer and consumer, increased imports and a sharp rise in meat costs,” and progress to Europe. Between 2018 and 2020, ASF killed half of China’s pigs.
The virus is now inside 73 countriesincluding the Dominican Republic and Haiti – neighbors of the US – although not yet in the US
Urgent, lucrative vaccine
According to Farm Progress, a study conducted by Iowa State University showed that ASF an outbreak in the US would be devastating. It would immediately close international markets for US pork and reduce US live hog prices by 40% to 50%.
The U.S. pork industry would lose $15 billion to $50 billion and 140,000 jobs would be lost over 10 years, according to the study.
ASF vaccine Vietnam would become the first country to export ASF vaccine, but this product is now suspended. Navetco, co-developer of the vaccine, is under Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
tea”market” for live and attenuated vaccines to prevent AFS and other swine diseases is estimated at $2,724.5 million, according to EIN News.
Players include Merck Animal Health, Ceva, Zoetis Services LLC, Boehringer Ingelheim International and other companies related to animal drugs.
The stated need for an effective ASF vaccine, especially as the United States prepares for—and fears—an ASF outbreak, helped fund Genvax, a vaccine startup in Ames, Iowa.
In April, the company received a $145,000 grant from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, to develop a “self-reinforcing” ASF vaccinates.
Self-boosting vaccines are taking off
Self-amplifying messenger RNA (saRNA) vaccines may be the next step in vaccine development. They “copy” themselves after injection and may represent lower costs as smaller doses are required and storage is easier Science magazine.
Transgenic gold gene of interest is inserted into the vaccine platform, which elicits an antibody response without the need to use the entire pathogen, he explains Genvax. Self-reinforcing has “showed increased antigen expression at lower doses compared to conventional mRNA, suggesting that this technology may improve immunization,” notes the article in Nature.
The FFAR grant awarded to Genvax specifies collaboration with the Agricultural Research Services Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a controversial animal disease research facility off the coast of New York.
A 2005 book, “Laboratory 257: The disturbing story of the government’s secret germ laboratory Plum Island“, exposed to biological meltdowns, infected workers, and virus outbreaks at the facility including the laboratory leaks that have been severely underplayed by the mainstream media.
In August, shortly before the Vietnamese pigs died, Genvax, accepted additional funding – $6.5 million from a coalition of meat packers, feed manufacturers and other food chain groups to develop its portfolio of self-boosting vaccines. “As a stakeholder in the pork industry, we feel this is a necessary step to help prepare for and protect against African swine fever and other emerging diseases.” said Kevin Ladwig, managing director of Johnsonville Ventures, about the funding. Other Genvax investors included Iowa Corn Growers Association, Summit Agricultural Group and Ag Startup Engine.
The death of Vietnamese pigs cast a cloud over the first commercial ASF vaccine
When news broke in January 2021 of Navetco’s successful ASF vaccine and the company’s plan to start the world’s first mass production of such a vaccine, inventory doubled. After initial tests, Navetco and ARS scientists wrote Transboundary and emerging diseases in 2021 that the vaccine, “is able to protect pigs against virulent ASFV [African Swine Fever Virus] isolate currently circulating and producing diseases in Vietnam.
Douglas joy and manual Fighterco-authors of the Transboundary and Emerging Diseases article and research microbiologists with ARS even patented a vaccine called ASFV-G-ΔI177L, according to to the diary.
Dr. Jianqiang Zhang, associate professor of veterinary diagnostics and production animal medicine at Iowa State University, also praised the vaccines. scientists from ARS “Not only did they identify a gene they could remove to weaken the virus in the large and complex ASF genome, but they also developed a cell culture-adapted strain of ASF that could replicate in vaccinated pigs but was attenuated and able to induce protection against ASF,” he said to it American Veterinary Medical Association in 2021. After the ASF vaccine he passed regulatory test in April 2022, which showed that ASF did not return to baseline virulence after injection, Gladue, Borsa and ARS were further supported.
But after the animals died and the vaccines were suspended, Vietnamese officials began investigating and looking for answers. Phung Duc Tien, representative said the country’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, “If the quality of the vaccine was bad, all the vaccinated pigs would die,” Instead, he suspected that the problems occurred during the vaccination process, as many rural farmers purchased the vaccine and injected the pigs themselves without expert help or consultation with a veterinarian.
Dr. Paul Sundberg, executive director of the US Swine Health Information Center and member of the Swine Innovation Porc African Swine Fever Research Task Force, Dr. pointed After the pig deaths in Vietnam, early reports suggested the vaccine worked well and initial safety studies went well.
Damage control
In September, a Vietnamese agricultural news website he announced that successful ASF vaccine trials have been completed and ASF vaccination will be restarted. Agriculture officials said the hundreds of pigs that died after vaccination in August stemmed from using incorrect vaccine doses, vaccinating animals at the wrong age or other practices that did not comply with the ministry’s guidelines. A couple of pigs on display “mild fevers” after the trials, but mass vaccination will now continue.
Meanwhile, the US pork producers they have two fears – that the vaccine they have developed together is ineffective and dangerous, and that the devastating African swine fever will reach American shores.