Vaccines for ASF may be available soon

Vaccines for African swine fever or ASF could soon be available in the country once the clinical trials for a Vietnam-made vaccine by the local agriculture product firm KPP Powers Commodities are completed and proven successful.

KPP Powers said safety and efficacy trials using the AVAC ASF Live vaccine are being conducted, under the supervision of the Bureau of Animal Industry, in four local farms. These trials are expected to be completed in April.

Juancho Robles, KPP Powers managing director, said they partnered with AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock for the Philippine distribution of AVAC ASF Live Vaccine, which has been proven effective in protecting pigs against ASF disease in the Southeast Asian neighbor.

According to Robles, AVAC ASF Live Vaccine underwent rigid clinical trials and field testing that were strictly monitored by the Vietnamese government. AVAC is the first veterinary vaccine factory in Vietnam certified under the World Health OrganizationGood Manufacturing Practices standard.

The Vietnamese government recently reported that more than 600,000 doses of the AVAC ASF vaccine have been administered in field trials since July last year. Because of the highly favorable results, the Vietnamese government will also start this month its own nationwide distribution of the vaccine to help local hog farmers.

ASF is a viral hog disease affecting pigs and wild boars with up to 100 percent case fatality rate. It has devastated the swine industries of many countries across the globe since its resurgence in 2018. Once infected with ASF, pigs die within a matter of days resulting in huge losses to hog farmers.

Since 2019, ASF more than halved the Philippine swine population, resulting in loss of livelihoods of local hog backyard raisers, shutdown of large commercial pig farms, decline in feed mill operations and loss of revenues of allied industries with an estimated economic value of more than P100 billion a year.