Karnataka’s veterinary varsity readies vaccine for swine fever

The Bidar-based KVAFSU (Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University) has developed vaccine to tackle swine fever in pigs, according to its Vice-Chancellor.

In an informal chat with presspersons on the sidelines of a programme at College of Fisheries in Mangaluru on Thursday, C Renukaprasad, Vice-Chancellor of KVAFSU, said that there is no cell-cultured vaccine for swine fever as of now. Stating that swine fever should not be confused with swine flu, he said swine fever affects pigs only.

Till now, vaccines were prepared from the liver of rabbits to tackle swine fever in pigs. The university has prepared vaccine through cell culture. Under this, there is no need to sacrifice rabbits for preparing swine fever vaccines, he said.

A laboratory is being set up to produce swine fever vaccines for pigs, and it may start in two-three months.

On the commercial production of the vaccine, he said the university is waiting for the licence to launch it in the market.

On the other activities of the university, he said it is now concentrating on increasing sheep meat production.

In this regard, the university has a tie-up with Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) at Phaltan in Maharashtra. NARI’s efforts in developing Booroola gene has helped in increasing the lamb production in the country, as the gene carrier ewes produce twin lambs at every alternate lambing.

The university wants to introduce this gene into non-descript varieties of sheep in the state. The intention is to increase sheep meat production by 25 per cent in four years with this effort, he said.

Stating that the university is not concentrating all sheep varieties under this, Renukaprasad said the gene will be introduced only in non-descript ones.

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