New ASF vaccine is safe and effective, developers say

Researchers in China say they’ve developed a safe and effective vaccine against African swine fever.

Scientists at Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, China’s top animal disease research group, used the country’s first ASF strain to make the vaccine, Bloomberg reported. It’s a live attenuated vaccine, meaning that while the virus is still viable (“live”), it’s been weakened.

“The vaccine is currently the most promising one for commercial production and will provide important technical means for the effective prevention and control of African swine fever in China and other related countries,” the institute said. It didn’t say when the vaccine will be put into production.

However, Dr. Paul Sundberg, executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, told Feedstuffs that there are still “a lot of issues that need to be addressed before this [development] leads to a vaccine.” Researchers will have to prove it can be used against the circulating strain, Sundberg said.

Meanwhile, registration has opened for the World Pork Expo, which will be hosted by the National Pork Producers Council in Des Moines June 3-5. This comes shortly after NPPC announced it would hold the event this year, after canceling it last year due to concerns over ASF.

In other ASF news, NPPC has argued that federal officials should restrict imports of organic soybean products. The council led a group of organizations that sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture saying they’re “confident in the safety of domestic soy products,” but that ASF could enter the country through contaminated imports.

Laboratory studies have shown soybean meal must be held for 125 days, or up to 168 days, to allow 99.99% of any ASF virus present to deteriorate. But an NPPC spokesperson said those times are impractical.

The group also said it’s concerned that U.S. labs aren’t sufficiently equipped to handle a North American ASF outbreak, Feed Strategy reported.

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