KPP Powers Commodities Inc., a local agricultural product company, has partnered with a reputable Vietnamese company for the local distribution of the first commercially available vaccine against African swine fever.

ASF is a viral hog disease affecting pigs and wild boars with up to 100 percent case fatality rate and that has devastated the swine industries of many countries across the globe since its resurgence in 2018.

Once infected with ASF, pigs die within a matter of days resulting in huge losses to hog farmers.

Currently, the vaccine is undergoing local trials under the supervision of the Bureau of Animal Industry in four farms in the Philippines. These trials are expected to be completed by April 2023.

In the Philippines, ASF is directly responsible for more than a 50 percent decline in the local swine population, resulting in the loss of livelihoods of local hog backyard raisers, shutdown of large commercial pig farms, decline in feed mill operations and loss of revenues of allied industries with an estimated economic value of more than P100 billion a year.

In a recent statement, KPP Powers said it has sealed an exclusive partnership with AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock Co. for the Philippine distribution of the AVAC ASF Live Vaccine, which has been proven effective in protecting pigs against ASF disease.

KPP Powers managing director Juancho Robles said AVAC is “the only company in the world that has a commercial use ASF vaccine with a valid certificate of product registration or marketing authorization.”

This vaccine is being produced by AVAC in Vietnam, where the vaccine underwent rigid clinical trials and field testing that were strictly monitored by the Vietnamese government.

WHO-certified factory

AVAC is the first veterinary vaccine factory in Vietnam certified under the World Health Organization-Good Manufacturing Practices standard.

KPP Powers, meanwhile, specializes in the distribution and importation of veterinary products, raw materials, nutritional feed additives, vaccines and other agri-related products.

This company is currently the local partner of many reputable multinational companies, including BASF, ADDCON, Premex, Neogen, Zamira and Daeho Co. Ltd.

KPP Powers carries many well-known agri-vet products such as Luvicross, Natugrain TS, Natuphos E, Formi NDF, Zamax, Green Culture, Zambac MD100, Zambac ZN150 and Iron Glycinate.

Long vax history

Robles said that AVAC is part of the RTD Group Vietnam, which has more than 25 years of experience in the business of production of veterinary vaccines, pharmaceutical products and related farm systems.

AVAC has patented the DMAC Cell Line, which is the only ASF vaccine cell line that does not significantly degrade when used for commercial ASF vaccine production.

The company first received approval for commercialization in June 2022. Since then, many large commercial farms in Vietnam have been using the vaccine and have reported successful results of vaccine efficacy rates at 95 percent.

The Vietnamese government recently reported that more than 600,000 doses of the AVAC ASF vaccine have been administered in field trials since July 2022.

Because of the highly favorable results, the Vietnamese government will also start this month its own nationwide distribution of the vaccine to help local hog farmers.

Other relevant information regarding ASF and the AVAC vaccine follows:

Currently, only the AVAC ASF Live vaccine is commercially available to safely combat the dreaded ASF disease. The vaccine has a proven high efficacy rate of 95 The AVAC ASF Live vaccine has been proven safe to use via intramuscular injection on growing pigs from four to 18 weeks of age, with no shock or local inflammation. Only one injection is necessary to protect growing pigs.