Amid doubts from experts about its efficacy and safety, the Philippines is under international spotlight for its move to proceed with the gradual introduction of an unproven African swine fever (ASF) vaccine from Vietnam. The decision has split opinion with supporters claiming it could save the country’s ailing pork sector, while opponents warn of the risks of using a vaccine not proven to be effective.
Unproven Vaccine Caution
Worries about the ASF vaccine center on doubts aired by Vietnam over its trial data and what type of vaccine it is using. It is a live-attenuated vaccine that uses a less severe virus.
This kind of vaccine is very dangerous as it may mutate and revert back to the original virulent form of the virus. The vaccine did not fully regain strength, according to a 2023 study published in Nature, but one of the test pigs developed a variant that spread to all 10 others. The variant seemed to be a little more replicative and carried an increased likelihood for “shedding”, meaning the virus could be shed by the vaccinated animal, potentially sustain in contact with other individuals.
People like Baptiste Dungu, a veteran vaccinologist of over three decades have sounded alarm bells about this vaccine. But it is live-attenuated mammals vaccine (as such) the danger here is that there could be a little virulence so cause either disease Orcause for some inconvenience and also disease by Zelter add warning.
And a lack of transparency and competing interests
Said controversy, in turn is exacerbated by innovative vaccine processes that are not fully transparent for both development and field trials. The vaccine was said to have a 100% efficacy rate and not one participant suffered side effects, according to the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA), although no documentation of clinical trial results are available.
Former Agriculture Undersecretary Jose Reaño recently said he doubted the trials were real, as he had not seen documents about field trials at that time when they did release these things. He said: ‘If the results were as strong as they are letting on, then they have every incentive to share this data far and wide …But also it should not be seen as a silver bullet.
The Department of Agriculture did not answer requests for more details on the field trials, which only added to fears about the efficacy and safety of a vaccine. Additionally, the MGF component of the vaccine has been withdrawn from regulatory exclusions at US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) mention that effects related to instability in this virus strain and its potential for reversion to virulence led APHIS to end the exclusion.
Conclusion
The Philippines has taken a risk, and its decision to launch a Vietnamese unproven vaccine against ASF, in the face of global skepticism of rigorous scientific concerns, is high-stakes with colossal implications– not only for the country’s pork industry but beyond. The vaccine is safe and effective, the government says, so why are they not letting us know about this so-called goodness in detail; hidden risks identified by experts make me wonder if it is such a good idea to sign up. The Philippine authorities will need to pay heed to such warnings as the supervised rollout continues, conduct extensive independent trials, and put welfare of both animals and humans ahead of immediate economic gains.
