Announcing the African Swine Fever vaccine in June

On May 23, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien chaired a meeting on the preparation works for the announcement of the ASF vaccine. The Deputy Minister said that this was the first commercially-produced vaccine announced in the world. As the date of publication is coming close, testing procedures, as well as administrative procedures, should be closely monitored.

"The announcement of the ASF vaccine clearly shows the will and effort of Vietnam, especially in the context that the world has not been able to produce the vaccine for this type of disease for more than 100 years," said the Deputy Minister.

According to information from the Department of Animal Health, the process of announcing the African swine fever vaccine is in its final stages. It is expected that the Department would coordinate with the National Veterinary Joint Stock Company (Navetco) to organize the announcement event in Hanoi in June 2022. After that, the first 600,000 doses of the vaccine will be put into use.

Listening to the comments in the meeting, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien assigned the Department of Animal Health to assume the prime responsibility for monitoring the ASF vaccine when put into practice in collaboration with the Department of Science, Technology and Environment.

At the same time, the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development noted that units should choose some specific localities to carefully review the effectiveness of the vaccine, such as Quang Ninh and Quang Nam provinces - where many outbreaks occurred, or the Mekong Delta - the key agricultural region of the country.

African swine fever broke out in Vietnam in 2019, and spread to 63 provinces and cities after 7 months, causing estimated damage of VND 30,000 billion. Pork output decreased severely. The price of pork increased, sometimes reaching more than VND 100,000/kg.

Faced with that situation, three companies including National Veterinary Joint Stock Company, Dabaco Vietnam Joint Stock Company, and AVAC Vietnam Co., Ltd. had researched and commercialized the African swine fever vaccine. Through the testing process, the vaccine showed high efficiency in preventing the disease.