Vietnam has produced vaccines against rabies for dogs

Currently, Vietnam must import rabies vaccine to vaccinate dogs and cats. Recently, however, domestic scientists have successfully produced rabies vaccines for dogs according to cell technology.

This is the success of MSc Nguyen Kim Dung, Department of Vaccine Inspection, Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City. Many experts say, if the above vaccine is put into production, it can completely replace the current import source.

Replace imported vaccines.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, deputy head of diagnosis, testing and treatment station, Ho Chi Minh City Animal Health Department who directly tested this vaccine on 45 dogs commented: after 12 months, the protection rate On average, vaccination against rabies in dogs is an average of 76%. It is possible to proceed with the procedures to apply to mass vaccination.

According to Mr. Dung, earlier, there was also a domestic scientist who studied vaccines to prevent rabies for dogs and cats by cell technology. However, after six months, the rate of protection for vaccination is too low to meet the requirement for rabies prevention.

Learning from the failures of previous colleagues, MSc Dung and the research team solved the problem of building a cell culture process to determine the productivity and effectiveness of vaccines.

Vaccination against rabies at HCMC Veterinary Department. (Photo: Thai Ngoc)

After successful production in the laboratory, the research team collaborated with Ho Chi Minh City Department of Animal Health to test vaccination directly on dogs. As a result, the percentage of protection vaccination 76% on 45 dogs is equivalent to imported vaccines.

Ready to coordinate production

Previously, Vietnam used to produce vaccines to prevent rabies from dogs and cats from chicken eggs, but the limitation of this vaccine was the appearance of adverse reactions to the injected subjects. Therefore, vaccination units have stopped using vaccines by domestic units. Instead, dog vaccination is carried out on the basis of imported vaccines produced by cell technology with higher safety features.

Vaccine according to cell technology produced by MS Dung. (Photo: Thai Ngoc)

Having followed the research process of MS Dung, after obtaining the experimental results, Mr. Kim Van Phuc, Deputy Director of the Center for Veterinary Research, Central Veterinary Drug Co., Ltd. (NAVETCO ) said: With the above test results, NAVETCO is ready to buy copyright or cooperate to produce this vaccine .

However, to be able to put it into production, more research is still needed. According to Phuc, the cost of about 5,500 VND / dose of vaccine for a production batch (10 doses) is still high. Mr. Phuc suggested that the research team need to improve the quality of the vaccine, but the cost must be lowered further.

In particular, the safety standards of vaccines must be top priority. NAVETCO now imports more than three million doses of rabies vaccine for dogs and cats from France to provide vaccination units. Mr. Nguyen Van Dung said: in recent years, the Veterinary Department of Ho Chi Minh City has imported more than 200 thousand doses of vaccines for vaccination. If domestic production of imported vaccines is self-sufficient, it will be proactive in source of vaccine, without waiting time, especially when rabies occurs.