Veterinary and human vaccine manufacturer Indian Immunologicals Ltd. (IIL) has launched Classical Swine Fever (CSF) vaccine.
Announcing that it has launched the product under the brand name ‘Raksha Class’, a release from IIL on Thursday said that this unique cell culture technology-based vaccine has been developed in collaboration with the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly.
A highly contagious viral disease of pigs, caused by an RNA virus, the Classical Swine Fever has a high fatality rate and thus, pig-growers face serious economic problems with the loss of the herd.
The Raksha Class vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine and has been tested for safety, sterility and potency. The field trials were conducted at Bengaluru and Hyderabad Veterinary colleges.
Raksha Class offers distinct advantages in terms of safety and can be scaled up in cell cultures to meet the entire country’s requirements. The current requirement is about 22 million doses and the supply is less than a million, the release said.
IIL’s manufacturing facilities can make several million doses of the vaccine. Managing Director K. Anand Kumar said, “CSF is one of the major diseases of pigs in India. It causes a loss of about ₹400 crore per annum in India. The disease has led to a decrease of pig population in the country. With the launch of Raksha Class, we can ensure that the pig population in India can be increased and hence, the growers will be immensely benefited economically.”
Deputy MD Prasanna Deshpande said that the pig population in India is estimated to be around 9 million. More than 50% of the piggery units are concentrated in the north-east region.