Indonesian government to regulate AI vaccines

//27 Jul 2011
Recently the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture announced the regulation of Avian Influenza (AI) vaccine’s circulation. Signed by General Director of Livestock and Animal Health, the letter of the regulation was sent to the producers and importers of animal vaccines in Indonesia.
In that regulation, the government determined the master seeds of AI virus (local strain of H5N1) used for vaccine preparation (Table 1). Besides those master seeds of AI virus, the addition of other master seeds of AI virus (local strain of H5N1) could be possible as far as its protectiveness fulfils the specific criteria and proved by challenge tests. The government also has determined the AI virus isolates used for the challenge test (Table 2).

Another regulation is that the distribution of AI vaccines which are not using the master seeds of AI virus determined by the government have to be stopped. The deadline to finish the pulling process of those AI vaccines in the market is December 2011.

Table 1. The master seeds of AI virus (local strain of H5N1) used for vaccine preparation

No. Master seed of AI virus
1. A/Chicken/West Java/PWT-WIJ/2006
2. A/Chicken/Pekalongan/BBVW-208/2007
3. A/Chicken/Garut/BBVW-223/2007
4. A/Chicken/West Java (Nagrak)/30/2007









* could be used as single or polivalen vaccine
Source: General Directorate of Livestock and Animal Health, Indonesia

Table 2. The AI virus isolates used for challenge test

No. AI virus isolate
1. A/Chicken/West Java-Subang/29/2007
2. A/Chicken/West Java/SMI-PAT/2006






Source: General Directorate of Livestock and Animal Health, Indonesia

Pork reserves to be released by Chinese government

//15 Jul 2011
The price of pork in China is currently sky-rocketing, in order to bring down the prices, the Chinese government will release some pork reserves onto the market.
It has been reported that the central pork reserves stands at 200,000 tonnes, and this amount will be gradually boosted, for better impact on future price levels. Yao Jian, Ministry of Commerce spokesman stated that the government will release some stocks held by the central and local governments "in a timely fashion."

The release of pork reserves onto the market, comes at a time when pork prices recently reached record levels last month, increasing 57% from a year earlier.

According to analysts the pork price hike is a result of a falling hog population due to factors such as swine flu culling in 2009 and Foot and Mouth disease last year.

Curb inflation
On Wednesday, the Chinese government also said that there is a new fiscal support policy to boost the country's supply of live pigs. The announcement by the Chinese government of the new fiscal support policy is expected to bring down pork prices and curb soaring inflation. Also, there will be an investment of 2.5 billion yuan ($390 million) in large pig farms.

Also read: China to increase pig supply, curb inflation