The Union government has set aside Rs.13,343 crore to control and eradicate diseases including Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis over the next five years. These diseases are common among cows, bulls, buffaloes, sheep, goats and pigs. The government scheme envisages vaccine coverage to 30 crore bovines, 20 crore sheep and goats besides 10 million pigs.
Sensing huge business opportunity, Biovet, an animal vaccine manufacturer at Malur, Karnataka, has invested Rs.200 crore to increase its vaccine delivery besides focus on multiple animal vaccines manufacturing.
India is facing a gross shortfall of these vaccines to combat FMD and Brucellosis which affects the livelihood of small farmers who depend on dairy farming. Annually, the estimated loss due to the disease is Rs.25,000 crore and India needs 1,000 million doses. Currently, 500 million doses are available and we aim to fulfill this gap through a planned expansion, said Dr. Krishna Ella, founder, Biovet.
“We are constructing an advanced Brucella vaccine production facility at Malur to produce 300 million more doses annually. Present capacity is 200 million and the new facility will manufacture 300 million taking the total to 500 million. This is the first BSL-3PlusAg production facility in Asia and 2nd in the world, after Pirbright built by UK government and leased to Merial which was acquired by Boeringer Ingelheim,” said Dr. Panduranga Rao, vice president, Biovet.
“Our independent production lines for 3 separate serotype FMD viruses on completion will be the first-of-its-kind in the world. Further, the new facility for Brucella Vaccines will place Biovet, as the world’s largest manufacturer of this vaccine,” added Dr Ella.
According to Dr B Y Sridhara, general manager, Biovet, latest technologies like high dense cell cultures and perfusion technology, hollow fiber technology, along with monitoring the production using supervisory control and data acquisition systems to fortify our global quality and audit practices are underway.
The company already has license to produce Hemorrhagic Septicaemia vaccine for cattle and buffaloes, Enterotoxaemia vaccine for sheep and goats and Black quarter vaccine for cattle and buffaloes.
Biovet set up operations in 2006 to control and eradicate the highly pathogenic viral and bacterial diseases. It is also the first to develop and market Johne’s disease vaccine in India and the second globally too. Moreover, as an R&D focused veterinary vaccine company, it is also the first company to produce Pentavalent Bluetongue vaccine in India.
While FMD is a highly contagious disease of cattle where during outbreaks, up to 100% of unvaccinated animals get affected. An estimated losses per infected animal with FMD for sheep is Rs.2023, goat is Rs.3046 and pig is Rs.2830. In the case of Brucellosis, it is also transmitted to humans with bovine contact. It affects 30% of the animals and there is a pressing need to scale it down to 2%. Only vaccinating the animals can help eradicate the problem, said Dr Ella.
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