Health
15:06, 25-May-2019
Chinese researchers make headway in developing African swine fever vaccine
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Chinese researchers have made notable progress in developing a vaccine against African swine fever, a highly contagious viral disease that infects swine only.
The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) set up an African swine fever research team, including the state-owned Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, soon after the outbreak of the epidemic, with a focus on vaccine development, according to a document released Friday at a CAAS news briefing.
Harbin Veterinary Research Institute has found two vaccine candidates, proven to have good biological safety in laboratory tests to offer immunity to the disease. In the next stage, CAAS will accelerate the progress of pilot and clinical trials, as well as vaccine production.
Researchers have also specified the minimum protective inoculation dose, and proved the safety of high dose and repeated inoculation, the document said.
Next, researchers will speed up the pilot-scale experiment and clinical trials, as well as studies on vaccine production on the basis of progress made in the laboratory stage, the document said, adding they will complete the study on the immune mechanism, diagnosis, detection, and disinfection technology as soon as possible.
African swine fever is a highly contagious deadly viral disease that affects both wild and domestic swine of all ages. Since the first outbreak of the epidemic in China in August 2018, the country had reported a total of 129 outbreaks and culled 1.02 million pigs by April 22. The disease is continuing spreading through the worldwide hog herd.
Source(s): Xinhua News Agency