SHIC Reports on African Swine Fever Vaccines Approved in Vietnam

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Vietnam has officially approved the domestic commercial use of two locally manufactured vaccines against African swine fever. With this decision, NAVET-ASFVAC by Navetco Central Veterinary Medicine Company and AVAC ASF LIVE by AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock Company have become the world’s first commercial vaccines against ASF. SHIC’s Global Swine Disease Monitoring Report provides a detailed overview of the process and expectations in this month’s report, summarized herein.

Next Steps

According to a government statement, Vietnam’s agriculture ministry has requested the two vaccine-producing companies to devise production plans for both domestic sales and export. Considering the existing regional and international markets, the scope for these vaccines may extend far beyond Vietnam.

According to confirmed sources at Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the vaccines against ASF will be available for purchase by Vietnamese farmers and will not be provided by the government. The estimated price for these vaccines is approximately $1.50 per dose. The two vaccines have differing rules for use surrounding the age of piglets at administration and duration of immunity.

Further details on next steps are included in this month’s report.

Field Evaluation

Both companies worked with specialized agencies and other collaborators to test the vaccines. Dr. Phan Quang Minh, Deputy Director of Vietnam’s Department of Animal Health, said that up to this point, the pilot vaccination of 600,000 doses of ASF vaccine has given positive results on a small scale of the two companies NAVETCO and AVAC JSC Vietnam. Additional details on the field evaluation can be found in this month’s report.

Efficacy and Potency Trials

At the National Center for Veterinary Drugs and Vaccines Control I, rigorous safety and potency trials were conducted for each vaccine to ensure the highest quality standards. In these trials, the efficacy of the vaccines was defined as the percentage of animals presenting antibodies against ASF measured by ELISA at day 21. Trial information and design is included in this month’s report.

Remaining challenges

Several significant challenges related to the successful implementation of the vaccine remain unresolved. These challenges include:

• • Lack of a DIVA (differentiating infected from vaccinated animals) feature in both vaccines, making it difficult to distinguish vaccinated animals from infected ones,
• • Absence of an effective molecular surveillance system to monitor the circulation of wild and vaccine variants in the pig population, which is crucial for understanding the virus’s dynamics and the vaccine’s efficacy,
• • The need to establish a sustainable plan for documenting and assessing the vaccine’s effectiveness in real-world scenarios. This requires robust reporting systems to gather accurate data on the vaccine’s status and outbreak reports, helping to evaluate its impact on the target population thoroughly.

Acknowledgement to Dr. Chuong Vo Dinh for his valuable time in the interview with the Global Swine Disease Monitoring Report team at the University of Minnesota. Read this month’s full report here.

The Swine Health Information Center, launched in 2015 with Pork Checkoff funding, protects and enhances the health of the US swine herd by minimizing the impact of emerging disease threats through preparedness, coordinated communications, global disease monitoring, analysis of swine health data, and targeted research investments. As a conduit of information and research, SHIC encourages sharing of its publications and research. Forward, reprint, and quote SHIC material freely. For more information, visit http://www.swinehealth.org or contact Dr. Paul Sundberg at [email protected] or Dr. Megan Niederwerder at [email protected].