August 27, 2020

China clamps down on illegal African swine fever vaccines

China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will crackdown on illegal African swine fever (ASF) production and use in the country, after obtaining evidence of these illegal vaccines being used, Reuters reported.

China will soon approve the first ASF vaccine with plans to conduct expanded clinical trials, but the production and distribution of illegal vaccines over the past several months could derail the launch of the officially approved ASF vaccine.

Legal Daily, a state-backed newspaper reported that Chongqing police arrested seven suspects involved in illegal ASF vaccine production.

While China has previously warned producers over the use of illegal ASF vaccines, the latest announcement is stricter.

Provincial government authorities will be allowed to investigate veterinary laboratories, drug producers and swine farmers for any indication of illegal ASF vaccine production.

Research or commercial veterinary laboratories must allow inspections, with checks to be conducted on unlabelled vaccines, disease materials, or reagents plus experiment records.

The new stricter inspections also allow authorities to supervise vaccine clinical trials and pilot production so as to prevent illegal transfer of the pilot product.

Swine breeders and veterinary product manufacturers will be inspected as well, with farm immunisation records to be checked. Swine will be tested for various ASF strains, with detection of gene deletions indicating a vaccine was used.

-      Reuters