Latest News on African Swine Fever Vaccine: Agriculture and Rural Affairs Official Responds, Do Not Believe Rumors

Recently, many farmers have heard a claim that an effective vaccine for African swine fever has now been developed, according to online rumors. For a time, this plunged farmers into inexplicable panic. So let us take a look together at the latest news on the African swine fever vaccine!

Latest News on African Swine Fever Vaccine

I. African swine fever vaccines on the market are fake

Recently, the internet has spread claims that so-called “African swine fever pilot vaccines, homemade vaccines, and even smuggled vaccines” have been put into use at farms (households) in some parts of the country, drawing great attention from professionals in the pig industry. Recently, a reporter interviewed the head of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs regarding issues related to African swine fever vaccines. The official clearly stated that, as of now, no country has approved an African swine fever vaccine for marketing and use. The current period is a critical time for African swine fever prevention and control, and farms (households) must not believe rumors, which could cause even greater losses!

II. China has no approved commercial African swine fever vaccine on the market

The head of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs stated that the development of an African swine fever vaccine has always been a worldwide challenge. As of now, no country in the world, including China, has an approved African swine fever vaccine for marketing and use. Since the outbreak of African swine fever in China, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has consistently actively supported and encouraged all legally compliant research institutions and enterprises to carry out research on African swine fever prevention and control technologies.

Judging from the progress of vaccine research and development in China, the research units are currently at different stages, with even the fastest only at the stage of pilot process exploration and product quality research as well as genetically modified organism biosafety evaluation, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has not yet approved them to conduct clinical trial research. Therefore, as long as so-called “African swine fever pilot vaccines, homemade vaccines, and even smuggled vaccines” appear on the market at present, according to the provisions of the Regulations on the Administration of Veterinary Drugs, they are all illegal vaccines and should all be treated as fake veterinary drugs. Farmers are asked to keep their eyes open and guard against being deceived.

III. Use of illegal vaccines may trigger the spread of disease

The official stated that the so-called “African swine fever pilot vaccines, homemade vaccines, and even smuggled vaccines” lack systematic experimental research and have not passed scientific, objective and rigorous review and evaluation, so their safety and efficacy cannot be guaranteed. Live vaccines in particular may carry unpredictable biosafety risks. If farms (households) use such vaccines to immunize pigs, they may not only fail to achieve the expected preventive immunization effect, but may also cause infection in the pig herd and trigger the spread of disease due to illegal immunization.

In addition, judging from the match between vaccine production strains and the prevalent strains in China, the prevalent African swine fever strains in China belong to genotype II. Blindly introducing foreign genotype I vaccine strains to immunize pigs in China will inevitably make the epidemic situation of African swine fever virus in China more complex.

The official reminded that the current period is a critical time for African swine fever prevention and control. If farms (households) believe rumors and count on illegal vaccines to protect the health of their pig herds, thereby relaxing their own biosafety protection measures, they will inevitably find themselves in a situation of “losing the wife and the troops” and seriously disrupt the overall effort to prevent and control African swine fever.

IV. Illegal production, sale and use of illegal vaccines will be severely cracked down on

According to the provisions of the Regulations on the Administration of Veterinary Drugs, producing, selling and using “African swine fever pilot vaccines, homemade vaccines, and smuggled vaccines” are serious illegal acts and must be severely cracked down on.

At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a document to severely crack down on the illegal production, sale and use of “homemade vaccines” and other illegal veterinary vaccines. For illegal and non-compliant acts, once verified, they will be resolutely punished severely, heavily and swiftly. Among these, for veterinary drug producers and operators holding veterinary drug production or operation licenses, the maximum penalty shall be imposed in accordance with the law, their veterinary drug production or operation licenses shall be revoked, and the principal persons in charge of the production and operation enterprises shall be banned for life from engaging in veterinary drug production and operation activities; for those producing illegal vaccines without a veterinary drug production license, “black dens” shall be completely destroyed, the maximum penalty shall be imposed in accordance with the law, and production equipment and illegal gains shall be confiscated; for veterinary drug users that violate relevant state regulations on the safe use of veterinary drugs and still illegally use vaccines while clearly knowing they are fake vaccines or vaccines that should have undergone review and approval but were produced or imported without such review and approval, the maximum penalty shall be imposed in accordance with the law. At the same time, it is required to strengthen the linkage between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice. If the competent animal husbandry and veterinary departments discover during investigation that relevant illegal acts are suspected of crimes, they must promptly transfer them to public security organs. If pigs immunized with illegal vaccines test positive, they shall be regarded as pigs infected with African swine fever and shall be culled.