Source: Farm Journal’s Pork/AgDay TV, 4 October 2021, photo credit: Homeland Preparedness News
For the past 10 years, USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have been working on a vaccine for African swine fever (ASF), the deadly virus of pigs.
AgDay’s Clinton Griffiths recently visited with ARS scientists Douglas Gladue and Manuel Borca about the work they’ve been doing on a vaccine since the ASF outbreak in the country of Georgia back in 2007.
“While the virus strains have changed over time, this newest vaccine appears effective against the current outbreaks in Asia and those early European strains,” Griffiths reports.
Gladue said the most recent studies with this vaccine candidate have been done at Navetco National Veterinary Joint Stock Company where the ASF strain has evolved throughout the ASF pandemic and is a more recent strain from feed that was circulating in Vietnam.
“This shows that our vaccine candidate is effective against not only the original strain, but also the strain that has evolved and has had some small genetic changes that have occurred,” Gladue told AgDay.
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The South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO) coordinates industry interventions and collaboratively manages risks in the value chain to enable the sustainability and profitability of pork producers in South Africa.
