Vaccine breakthrough for African Swine Fever claimed by US scientists

While the research is still ongoing, scientists say their vaccine can proceed to commercial trials.

If successful, a vaccine would have a global impact as the virus has devastated pig herds across Asia and particularly in China.

Development of a vaccine against the disease has been top priority for farm animal scientists.

Claimed to be the world's worst animal health issue, the highly contagious disease of pigs has already arrived in PNG.

The Federal government this year allocated $370 million to biosecurity protection, with $60 million dedicated to protecting Australia's pork industry.

The economic impact of an outbreak of ASF in Australia is calculated to be more than $2 billion.

The virus has already killed a quarter of the world's pigs, there is no treatment for it, and no vaccine has yet been successfully developed for it.

China is already estimated to have lost half its huge pig herd.

The US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service last week announced one of its African Swine Fever virus vaccine candidates has been shown to prevent and effectively protect both European and Asian bred swine against the current circulating Asian strain of the virus.

The vaccine has been developed by genetic modification.

The majority of swine used in the global food supply are produced in Asia, where the virus has been causing outbreaks and devastating losses to the swine industry.

ASF was originally detected in 2007 in the Republic of Georgia and is known to cause virulent, deadly disease outbreaks in wild and domesticated swine.

Since the original outbreak, ASF has had a widespread and lethal impact on swine herds in various countries in Eastern Europe and throughout Asia.

Although the virus is causing profound economic losses to the swine industry, there have not been any outbreaks in the US.

Newly published USDA research shows scientists have developed a vaccine candidate with the ability to be commercially produced while still maintaining its vaccine efficacy against Asian ASFV strains when tested in both European and Asian breeds of swine.

The Agricultural Research Service is the US Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency.

The findings also show a commercial partner can replicate experimental level results and prevent the spread of the virus.

Previous studies were done under laboratory conditions only in European bred pigs using an ASFV isolate, or sample, from the initial outbreak.

"We are excited that our team's research has resulted in promising vaccine results that are able to be repeated on a commercial level, in different pig breeds, and by using a recent ASFV isolate," ARS researcher Douglas Gladue said.

"This signals that the live attenuated vaccine candidate could play an important role in controlling the ongoing outbreak threatening the global pork supply," he said.

The onset of immunity was revealed in approximately one-third of the swine by second week post-vaccination, with full protection in all swine achieved by the fourth week.

Researchers will continue to determine the safety and efficacy of the vaccine under commercial production conditions and are working with their commercial partner in Vietnam.

"This is a major step for science and agriculture," ARS researcher Manuel Borca said.

"We are working carefully to see our vaccine candidate commercialized through the joint efforts of the US government, and our commercial partner, the Navetco National Veterinary Joint Stock Company."

Trade experts say China's outbreak is the single biggest factor in global meat demand.

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