EDITORIAL - Made in the Philippines

With African swine fever still spreading in the country and hog producers and vendors alike resisting price caps imposed on pork, the government is eyeing a long-term solution to the ASF scourge: local development of a vaccine.

The Department of Agriculture has announced the creation of a technical working committee that will coordinate with the USDA, The Pirbright Institute in England and other research institutions overseas for material transfer, development, manufacture and licensing of a vaccine for ASF. The committee will be co-chaired by directors Reildrin Morales of the DA’s Bureau of Animal Industry and Ruth Miclat-Sonaco of the National Livestock Program.

There is still no ASF vaccine approved by stringent regulatory authorities anywhere in the world. But DA officials must have been inspired by reports that Vietnam has developed an ASF vaccine with high efficacy and is set to become the first country to manufacture the shots within a few months. The vaccine was reportedly developed using genetically altered samples of the ASF virus that Vietnam requested from the United States, which has been studying the pathogen for a decade.

A pilot test of the vaccine on 72 healthy pigs showed 100 percent success, according to a report from Vietnam. The country has been hit hard by ASF, with six million pigs depopulated so far to curb ASF transmission. The urgency of the problem intensified Vietnamese research and development on a vaccine to end the pestilence.

Vaccine development has its risks. In China, the world’s top producer and consumer of pork, ASF decimated about 200 million pigs two years ago, and the country has had to grapple with reports of hog raisers turning to fake vaccines that are suspected to be producing ASF mutations. Fears have been raised that these variants could also jump to other countries, like the SARS and COVID viruses.

Still, with full attention to safety and efficacy, it is worthwhile for the Philippines to invest in R&D for a vaccine against ASF. For that matter, seeing the terrible impact of the COVID pandemic on lives and livelihoods and the difficulty of securing vaccines, the country should invest in vaccine development and a virology center. The Philippines is not lacking in brains and skills for this undertaking. With sufficient support for a coordinated effort among various disciplines, we should be able to produce the vaccines we need.