MANILA: The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday said it will launch the government-controlled vaccination using the AVAC live vaccines against African swine fever (ASF) in the third quarter of the year.
This came after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the certificate of product registration (CPR) for AVAC live vaccines from Vietnam.
In a joint press conference, DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said they have allocated PHP350 million for the procurement and free distribution of 600,000 doses for growers.
The DA has accounted for 150,000 current existing stocks of ASF vaccines from a single supplier of AVAC live vaccines.
‘Iyong August-September [rollout] na yun, baka yung first 150,000 [doses], then yung subsequent is malamang (For August to September, maybe that’s the first 150,000, then the subsequent, perhaps) we’ll go through the normal public meeting or whatever,’ Laurel said, adding that the red and pink zones will be prioritized for the restricted and clustered rollout.
As
of July 26, there are 150 barangays in the country under red zones, or those with active ASF cases; while 476 cities and municipalities have been upgraded to pink zones or buffer areas adjacent to infected zones, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
The FDA, meanwhile, assured that necessary trials were conducted before the issuance of CPR, saying the benefits of AVAC live vaccines far outweigh the risks involved.
‘The clinical trials have been undergone for almost a year or two years from now. So, this has come to the rigorous process,’ FDA Director General Samuel Zacate said.
‘It was applied to us and it has been proven 100 percent safe and efficacious,’ he added.
Zacate said they can revoke the validity of CPR once ‘significant’ mortality incidents are observed.
Rainy season
Meanwhile, Laurel said the restricted vaccination would help prevent ASF resurgence or ‘major outbreak’ during the rainy season.
‘Since tag-ulan, sa mga flooding, the chances of it na lalabas ay malaki ulit because
nasa groundwater iyan ng mga nabaon natin (Since it’s the rainy season, in flooded areas, the chances of it resurfacing is huge because there’s groundwater from previously buried hogs),’ he said, noting initial observations of ASF signs in Batangas and Mindoro.
‘We are monitoring this very closely and we’re hopeful na at least ngayon may panglaban na tayo in case magkaroon uli ng (that at least we have a countermeasure in case there will be a) major outbreak again,’ Laurel added.
The DA chief, however, said the public has no reason to panic.
‘We will be providing as much as we can iyong tinatawag na (what we call) apog or lime. That is one way to kill it or lessen it. There’s also a chemical, the chlorine dioxide na (that) we are planning to procure at i-distribute (and distribute),’ he said.
Laurel said the hog industry may feel the impact of the government-controlled vaccinations at least after six months.
‘If the vaccine is really effective, definitely malaki ang epekto niyan sa ating production (that
will have a big effect on our production). People will now invest again,’ he said.
‘There’s a good chance na bababa ang presyo ng pork at kikita rin iyong pork producers (that pork prices will drop and pork producers will earn more),’ Laurel said.
As of Tuesday, the prevailing price range of pork kasim in Metro Manila is at PHP300 per kilogram to PHP380/kg., while pork liempo ranges from PHP340/kg to PHP410/kg.
Source: Philippines News Agency