Pune-based Ventri Biologicals, the vaccine manufacturing division of Venkateshwara Hatcheries Group (VH), is planning to enter into livestock vaccine manufacturing. The company has already acquired a five-acre plot in the Pune-based Hinjewadi Biotech Park. Although Ventri is a dominant player in the poultry vaccine segment in the country, it is the first time it will be venturing into the livestock segment.

Confirming its plans, Dr. S. Ghosh, general manager, technical and production, Ventri Biologicals, said, "The Hinjewadi facility will focus only on livestock vaccine manufacture although it will be difficult to give the exact capacity we will be targeting." According to a MIDC official, Ventri will be completing the construction of its facility in the Park by June 2004.

The Ventri official, however, did not divulge the types of vaccines the company would be manufacturing. He also could not give the exact size of livestock vaccine market citing the complex nature of the market with a cattle population of 20 crore. Holland-based Intervet and Indian Immunologicals are the two major manufacturers of the vaccine in the country.

The top four diseases affecting the livestocks in South Asia are Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), reproductive disorders, Toxicara vituloram, and Brucella abortus. A recent international study conducted over 1,300 poor livestock keepers in India found that the top four diseases prevalent in Indian cattle were FMD (43%), diarrhoea from non-specific causes (14%), followed by fever (12%) and Hemorrhagic Septicaemia (8%).

Ventri Biologicals was started in 1982 as a leading avian vaccine manufacturer in India. The company currently produces about 32 poultry vaccines. VH Group has diverse stakes in breeding of poultry, poultry equipments, hatcheries, egg and chicken processing, animal health products, production of specific pathogen free (SPF) eggs and poultry feed.