Vietnam announces the creation of a vaccine for African swine flu in collaboration with American researchers. This is a world-first.
The vaccine will be available for Vietnam on Friday. Hanoi wants the vaccine to be available for sale abroad to aid countries affected by the epidemic.
"The production and distribution of the vaccine is an historic event (...). On Wednesday, Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Agriculture Minister, stated that we also target export. He didn't give any timeframe or estimate of Vietnam’s production capacity.
In February 2019, African swine flu was first discovered in Vietnam. Although it is harmless to humans, it can be fatal to livestock. The country has had to kill millions of people since then.
This disease has been prevented by no commercial vaccine. In partnership with American scientists, the Vietnamese vaccine was developed in 2020. Five clinical trials were conducted.
Phung Duc Tien stated that the immunity period is six months. He said that the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine have been confirmed by the Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture.
The swine flu outbreak in Vietnam has ended, which allowed farmers to replenish their herds. However, it continues to cause havoc in other parts of the globe.
According to data from World Organization for Animal Health, there were more than one million cases in domestic pigs between January 2020 and April 2022.
