Vietnam has temporarily suspended the use of its African swine fever (ASF) vaccine after dozens of pigs inoculated with the shots died this month, the country’s state media has reported, according to a report by Reuters.
The pigs were among around 600 pigs at several farms in the central province of Phu Yen to have been injected with the NAVET-ASFVAC vaccine developed by Navetco, a company owned by the agriculture ministry, the Nhan Dan newspaper reported.
“We have set up a working group to travel to the province to investigate the deaths of the pigs,” an agriculture ministry official.
The Vietnamese Government announced in June that the country has successfully developed an ASF vaccine and intended to become the first country to commercially produce and export it, describing it as a ‘milestone of the veterinary industry’.
The agriculture ministry had earmarked 600,000 doses of the vaccine for domestic use from July this year, Reuters reported.
ASF was first detected in Vietnam in 2019 and forced the country to cull around 20% of its pig herd the following year. The outbreak has so far this year spread to 753 areas in 47 provinces in Vietnam, leading to the culling of 36,500 pigs, according to the agriculture ministry.
Navetco didn’t immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.