UVAS develops vaccine

Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) is a viral problem of cloven footed animals such as cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat etc. It is characterized by lameness, smacking of mouth, discharge from mouth and nares lesions in the oral cavity (dorsum of tongue, soft palate, inner-side of the lips, dental pad & nose etc), skin of inter-digital space and teats of the infected animals. It causes loss in milk production, weight gain and hide quality of the animals. It also causes abortion in pregnant animals. Mortality is high in young calves and morbidity is up to 80 percent in FMD affected animals. The major constraint about FMD is its bad impact on the export of the country. It is estimated that the economic loss due to FMD is more than 6 billion annually in Pakistan.
The disease is controlled by mass vaccination of the animals. Both public organizations (Veterinary Research Institute, Lahore and University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore) and private sectors (Avicenna) are producing vaccine to control the disease. The production potential of FMD vaccine by these sectors was not more than 3 million per annum.
In order to develop multivalent FMD+HS vaccine and to enhance its production potential, Punjab Government through ASPL-II approved a development project “Augmentation of Foot and Mouth disease + hemorrhagic septicemia vaccine production potential and Immunoprophylaxes of the diseases amongst buffaloes and cattle” Worth of the project was Rs. 23 million.
The project was executed in Department of Microbiology under supervision of Prof. Dr. Khushi Muhammad. Two postgraduate students including Mr Qaiser Akram completed their research work in the project in collaboration with Dr Jawad Nazir. To improve the quality and reduce the cost of vaccine production, the vaccinal virus serotypes of the FMD virus were grown in roller bottle culture system. In this system, cells of BHK-21 cell line grew 3 times more density that that on roux flasks that are routinely used in biologics production units in Pakistan. This technique ultimately augmented the biomass production of FMD virus serotypes (TCID50) on the cells.
Mrs Noreen Sarwar improved the biomass production of Pasteurella multocida in self made and commercial biofermenter. It growth was improved from 1010/ ml to 1014/ ml. Since FMD virus is RNA in nature. With the formaldehyde, its RNA is not inactivated so its RNA can directly enter the host cells and initiate its replication. This could be plausible reason that the FMD outbreaks may occur in the vaccinated animals. In this research, it was proposed to inactivate the virus culture through Binaryethyleneamine (BEI) instead of formaldehyde.
There are many other factors which are responsible for failure of vaccine in field like mycotoxins in fodder, pesticides residues in drinking water, and some concurrent diseases like three days sickness, shipping fever, theileriosis, etc.
It is concluded that results of the study made it possible to develop multivalent oil based FMD (“O”, “A”, “Asia-1”) +HS vaccine and improved the vaccine production potential of the biologics production institutes. Dose of the vaccine is 3 ml and it is effective for one year. Cost the newly developed tetravalent (FMD trivalent and HS) vaccine is about Rs 40/ dose including all charges. The vaccine is 8 times cheaper than that of imported one (Rs 350/).
DR QAISER AKRAM
UVAS, Lahore