CAMP HILL, Pa. — Scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service announced this week that a vaccine candidate for African Swine Fever (ASF) passed a safety test required for regulatory approval, moving the vaccine closer to commercial availability.
The new results of the test show that USDA’s vaccine candidate does not revert to its normal virulence after being injected into swine. The reversion to virulence test is required to ensure that the vaccine’s weakened form of the ASF virus does not revert to its original state.
Safety studies are necessary to gain approval for use in Vietnam and eventually in other countries around the world. Future commercial use will depend on the approval from the department of animal health within each requesting country, according to the USDA.
The virus is causing profound economic losses to the swine industry, although there have not been any outbreaks in the United States. The highly contagious ASF virus spread from Africa to the Republic of Georgia in 2007, and has swept through Central Europe and Asia, before reaching the Dominican Republic last year. The virus is not transmittable from pigs to humans.
The weakened vaccine strain retains much of its genetic makeup and could genetically change when exposed to various external circumstances. All live attenuated vaccines are weakened versions of a virus and can be used as a vaccine because the live vaccine virus will not cause illness and can provide immunity.
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–Pennsylvania Farm Bureau