Philippines to join global field trial for ASF vaccine

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines hopes to participate in the development of a vaccine for the dreaded African swine fever (ASF), a fatal hog disease which has resulted in the kill- ing of nearly 300,000 pigs and counting in the country.

The Department of Agriculture is bank- ing on the vaccine developed by the UK- based Pirbright Institute, which protected 100 percent of pigs immunized from a lethal dose of the ASF virus.

"We are looking forward to collabo- rating and taking part in the field trials of the prospective ASF vaccine developed once available. We believe that this will provide first-hand information on the efficacy of the vaccine against the strain present in the Philippines," Agriculture Secretary William Dar said.

He added the DA would closely collaborate with the research institution.

Control of ASF is limited to slaughter and quarantine of infected hogs due to the lack of vaccine.

Pirbright aims to identify correlates of protection by analyzing the cellular and adaptive immune response of pigs protected from the ASF virus by experimental vaccines.

"The ability to effectively control ASF virus would have great economic and social value in the developing world, both at a local level where pig farming represents an opportunity for the rural poor of a long term income stream as well as a source of cash in an emergency, and at the national level by removing barriers to trade," it said.

In the Philippines, a total of 293,973 pigs have already been killed since the outbreak started in August 2019.

As of the latest data from the government, there are 4,427 cases of ASF in the country.

"The unavailability of a commercial vaccine has called for stricter biosecurity measures and culling of susceptible animals to curb the proliferation of this deadly virus," Dar said.

"However, if the said field trials will be successful, we will be able to save not only the lives of the pigs, but also the livelihood of our swine raisers as well," he said.