Topics Covered: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
India develops new vaccine to control classical swine fever
What to study?
For Prelims: About CSF, symptoms and prevention, the new vaccine.
For Mains: Significance and the need for new vaccines.
Context: The Indian Institute of Veterinary Research (IVRI) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed a new vaccine to control classical swine fever.
About the vaccine and it’s significance:
It is a live attenuated CSF cell culture vaccine (indigenous strain).
The indigenously developed vaccine will help in saving rabbits as the currently used vaccine (lapinized CSF vaccine) is produced by sacrificing large numbers of rabbits.
Besides, the new vaccine gives immunity for two years as compared to 3 to 6 months protection under the currently used vaccines.
The new vaccine will be a part of the government’s One Health Initiative.
What is Classical Swine Fever (CSF)?
Hog Cholera or Classical swine fever (CSF) is a contagious viral disease of domestic and wild swine.
It happens due to the viruses that bring viral diarrhea in pigs and ailments in sheep.
The disease does not harm humans but all-important precautions are advised to follow.
Concerns for India:
- Classical Swine Fever (CSF) is one of the biggest pigs’ diseases in India. It causes a loss of about 400 crores of rupees per year in India. This has led to a decrease in the population of pigs in 2019.
- India currently requires 22 million doses of the CSF (Classical Swine Fever) vaccine every year. However, currently, only 1.2 million doses are being produced. The reason behind its less production is that only 50 doses can be prepared from the spleen of a rabbit.
Sources: the Hindu.
