Farmscape for September 15, 2021

A Vietnam based veterinary drug manufacturer is preparing to conduct field trials of a new live attenuated African Swine Fever vaccine.
"Steps APHIS is Taking to Prevent and Prepare for African Swine Fever" was the focus of the second of a series of five ASF Action Week seminars yesterday.
Dr. Jeff Silverstein, the Deputy Administrator with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Services, says Navetco has been approved to begin field trials of the I177L vaccine, a new live attenuated ASF vaccine developed at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.

Clip-Dr. Jeff Silverstein-USDA-Agricultural Research Services:
This is our most promising vaccine to date.
It confers the highest degree of attenuation and efficacy.
That means that it's the least dangerous to animals and the most effective vaccine of all of the live attenuated vaccines that have been produced.
It gives complete protection even at a low dose and it lacks virulence even at a high dose so this gives it a great margin of safety.
There's no vaccine virus shedding and this vaccine induces sterile immunity, which means there's no wild type virus detectable after challenge.
All of these aspects give it a very high safety profile, the best of any live attenuated vaccine so far know for African Swine fever virus of the Georgia strain.

Dr. Silverstein says Navetco has conducted some of the pivotal laboratory studies showing safety and efficacy and, if the field trials go well, Vietnam could have a commercial vaccine by mid-2022.
He acknowledges the regulatory testing for Vietnamese approval does not meet international or U.S. regulatory approval standards so additional testing will be needed to get U.S. approval.
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Bruce Cochrane.

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