Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals (IAH&VB) has bagged the trial license for the development of the swine fever vaccine which is currently undergoing clinical trials at pig farms in Karnataka. The product is a cell culture based vaccine and is economical and easy to produce than the existing Lapinised vaccine which is a rabbit passage vaccine.

The Institute has sent in a proposal to the State government for funds to the tune of Rs 55 lakh for its research and development. But now the Institute has managed to complete the R&D with the available resources and will need financial assistance for large-scale production. Currently only trial batch vaccines are being produced at the GMP compliant unit of IAH&VB in Bangalore.

The incidence of Swine fever, a contagious viral disease of pigs, is rampant in North East and southern states of the country. The causative virus is a member of the genus Pestivirus of the family of Flaviviridae. There is only one serotype of CSF virus. Its outbreak has serious consequences for trade in pigs and pig products.

Swine fever is completely different from Swine flu that is now being reported in many parts of the world. While swine flu is spreading from human contact, Swine fever is prevalent only among pigs. However, the disease spreads easily and by different modes. Both the diseases are serious concerns and in India there are no reports of swine flu so far but swine fever incidence is on the rise, Dr C Renukaprasad, director, Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals told Pharmabiz.

The only way to control swine fever is vaccination. The Lapinised vaccine is available at IAH&VB, Ludhiana, Kolkata and Mhow in Madhya Pradesh and is in short supply. Going by the incidence of swine fever in Karnataka, there is a need for a modern vaccine and therefore IAH&VB has taken on the onus for R&D and production of the new cell culture based vaccine, added Dr Renukaprasad.

The swine fever could be acute, sub-acute, chronic, late onset or in apparent course depending on a variety of viral and host factors. The incubation period is between five and ten days.

The vaccine trials are going on at 10 pig farms located in Bangalore rural, Chickmagalur, Mudigere, Anekal, Malur and Kanakapura. Locations like Mangalore and Nanjungad in Mysore are also identified for the study. The findings of the trial will be submitted to the Karnataka drugs control department to seek the manufacturing license. So far the experimental vaccine has shown promising results, stated Dr SM Byregowda, joint director, Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals.

There is also no updated data on the pig population and therefore it is difficult to ascertain the incidence of swine fever. According to the data of 2003 available with the government, India has a pig population of 135.2 lakh. Uttar Pradesh has the highest pig population of 22.84 lakh, followed by Assam (15.43), West Bengal (13.01), Jharkhand (11.08), Nagaland (6.44), Meghalaya (4.19), Manipur (4.15) and Mizoram (2.18).