With the 30 per cent import duty imposed on the poultry vaccines in the last Union Budget, the market growth of multinational companies like ABIC, Holland-based Intervet, GSK, and Fort Dodge who are selling the vaccines in India currently has taken a heavy hit during the first half of 2003. While the poultry vaccine market in India has been growing at the rate of 10 to 12 per cent annually, the MNC brands have registered only 4 to 5 per cent growth during this period, it is learnt.

"The sales of MNC brands have been affected drastically due to import duties of 30 per cent and other allied expenses. As a result, imported PVs are expensive by about 40 per cent compared to their domestic counterparts," said Dr. Arun Atre, CEO, Sarabhai Zydus Animal Healthcare. Sarabhai Zydus markets in India poultry vaccines imported from Israel-based ABIC Veterinary Products.

According to him, a comparative pricing between a MNC vaccine and a domestic vaccine could not be made as 90 per cent of the vaccine trade takes place on an institutional basis with companies selling their products at different rates.

ABIC, Holland-based Intervet, GSK, and Fort Dodge (Animal Healthcare division of Wyeth) are active MNCs operating in the country's poultry vaccine market, which is pegged at Rs. 150 crore. Ventri Biologicals, the vaccine division of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, Indovax and Biomed are the leading domestic vaccine manufacturers.

The disparity in pricing has clearly proved beneficial to the Indian poultry vaccine manufacturers like Ventri, Indovax and Biomed who control about 65 per cent of the market share on value basis. ABIC and Intervet on a combined basis control about 28 per cent of the market with GSK and Fort Dodge sharing remaining seven per cent of the market on value basis.

According to Dr. V.H. Apte, senior production manager at Ventri, out of the 4,000 million doses of PV market in the country, the company controls 2,400 million doses.

Poultry vaccines are useful against viral diseases like Newcastle disease, infectious bursal disease, infectious bronchitis, infectious, encephalomyelitis, inclusion body hepatitis, fowl pox, Marek's disease, chicken infectious anaemia, viral arthritis, infectious laryngo-tracheitis, egg drop syndrome; bacterial diseases like fowl cholera, fowl typhoid, infectious coryza, e coli, chronic respiratory disease and protozoan diseases like coccidiosis.