IIL produces breakthrough vaccine for deadliest cattle disease in India

Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL), a front running Indian company in veterinary vaccination has developed a vaccine for haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS), a deadly disease of cattle and buffalo in India. The vaccine is a result of IIL’s collaboration with a consortium of national and international organizations like nocul8 UK (the commercial interface of the Moredun Research Institute ); UK Global Alliance for Veterinary Medicine (GALVmed), the University of Glasgow, UK; and the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI).

HS a deadly bacterial disease caused by the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, affects cattle and buffaloes. The disease has a major impact on the livestock industry in countries in South and Southeast Asia, where HS associated with serotype B:2 is widely prevalent. It causes severe economic loss through morbidity and mortality and is ranked amongst the most contagious bacterial diseases of cattle and buffaloes. Young animals are at high risk. About five lakh animals die annually in India from this disease. The current vaccines have limitations in affording long term protection. The new vaccine is a genetically modified organism administered as vaccine.

Dr V A Srinivasan, research director, IIL said, “An affordable, effective and improved vaccine for control of haemorrhagic septicaemia is the need of the hour. The farming community will benefit immensely with the use of such a novel vaccine by preventing loss of animals due to the disease”.

IIL is among the few companies doing research to develop veterinary vaccines to address the specific needs of the livestock sector in India. IIL is also a major human vaccine player supplying paediatric vaccines – DPT, TT, hepatitis B to the Universal Immunization Programme. In line with its mission, IIL markets these vaccines at highly affordable prices to farmers and patients alike. IIL is involved in research and development of conventional vaccines and new recombinant vaccines for infectious bacterial and viral diseases.

IIL’s R&D has several vaccines in its pipeline at various stages of development. Among the veterinary vaccines are a recombinant entero toxemia vaccine for clostridium perfringens type D infection, canine parvo virus – Virus Like Particle (VLP) vaccine, recombinant tick vaccine and a recombinant vaccine for porcine cysticercosis for pigs. The human vaccine candidates at an advanced stage of research are paediatric pentavalent vaccine – diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis BBBBB, and H, influenzae (DPTHepB+Hib), oral salmonella, vectored human papillomavirus vaccine for cervical cancer in women, Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) vaccine and the chikungunya virus vaccine.