October 14, 2025
Philippines: The search for an ASF vaccine
Since African Swine Fever (ASF) was first detected in the Philippines in 2019, it has devastated the country's swine population, affecting 73 of 82 provinces nationwide.
From 12.70 million heads before the first ASF case was reported, the swine population has declined to 9.86 million heads in 2023.
To date, more than 5 million pig heads have been killed, and the industry has lost more than ₱200 billion (US$3.43 billion), according to the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines.
The high mortality rate among the swine population has led to a decrease in pork production, higher pork prices, and financial losses for farmers – majority of which are small-scale hog raisers.
More than 70% of hog raisers are backyard farmers. Only 27% are commercial farm operators, and the remaining 3% are semi-commercial hog farms.
The ASF is a highly contagious viral disease that has posed a significant global threat to the swine industry.
Originally endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, the ASF has spread globally to several Asian and European regions since it was first confirmed and reported in Georgia in 2007.
In 2018, the ASF was detected in China.
Given that nearly half of the world's pigs are produced in China, its emergence in China has raised concerns for the swine industry both in Asia and globally.
Subsequently, the disease has spread throughout numerous Southeast Asian nations between 2019 and 2023, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.
Currently, 24 known ASFV genotypes exist. But the ASFV genotype II is the prevailing strain in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.
ASF remains a threat to the country's swine industry and food security.
There have been efforts to contain ASF through a public awareness program, control measures, increased surveillance and detection, as well as research to develop an effective vaccine.
Hanoi has two existing vaccines and has been approved for safe use nationwide in Vietnam.
In the Philippines, a candidate vaccine has been developed but has to pass safety tests and regulatory approval.
Since 2021, vaccination trials were conducted by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
The first two vaccines were from a joint venture between a United States vaccine company and Zoetis, and another one is the NAVET-ASFVAC from Vietnam.
However, it was reported that both failed to produce the desired immune response against ASF.
Thus, the Philippine government continued to develop and test an ASF vaccine.
In the meantime, the Philippines has decided to procure ASF vaccines and plans to start widespread immunization.
Without an effective vaccine, depopulation or culling infected pigs is still the only effective prevention and control strategy being implemented in affected areas in the Philippines.
There had been a vaccine trial conducted with a local company in partnership with an American private company.
It is curious to know why no known public vaccine trials were done with the U.S. Department of Defense (now the Department of War) when it has a research facility in the Philippines.
In September 2020, the United States — through its Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) — invested more than $600,000 in a Department of Agriculture biosafety laboratory in Tarlac to conduct research on ASF.
Five years after the biolaboratory was set up, nothing was heard of from either the US agency or the agriculture department.
The Philippine government must pry into what the United States Defense Agency was actually researching in the Tarlac biolab facility.
Why would the Philippines seek help from Vietnam to develop an ASF vaccine when the US had research facility in Tarlac?
Two years ago, the left wing group Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives called on President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr's government to investigate the US biolab in Tarlac because it might be working on something dangerous — a biological weapon.
However, the Makabayan bloc's call for an investigation fell on deaf ears.
The agriculture, defense, health, and foreign affairs departments did not lift a finger to find out the real purpose of Tarlac biolab.
The public is still waiting. There should be transparency in the US-funded biolab in Tarlac.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, after all, is a combat support agency that worked on weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives.
Isn't this funding for a Philippine civilian agency suspicious?
Why would the US put up a biolab in a third country where there could be a risk of contaminating the local population?
The ASF research should be handled by civilian and agricultural cooperation, not with an agency under the US War Department.
Since the start of the Cold War period after the end of World War II, the US has been setting up biolaboratories across the world to develop and test weapons of mass destruction, including biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons.
These were set up in Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe.
For instance, a former senior US State Department official, Victoria Nuland, had admitted that Washington has been funding over 30 dangerous biolabs in Ukraine, which Kiev and the White House initially denied.
"Ukraine has biological research facilities which, in fact, we're now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of, so we are working with the Ukrainians on how we can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach," she said in a congressional hearing.
Is the US moving its biolabs from Ukraine to Asia?
And is the Philippines — another willing ally — at the risk of endangering the lives of our people?
The Philippines must demand an explanation from the United States.
- News 5
