India News | IVRI Develops First Recombinant Vaccine for Veterinary Use, to Be Made Available for Farmers Soon

Bareilly(UP), Mar 6 (PTI) The Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) on Wednesday said it has developed a vaccine to curb the feared infectious bursal disease in poultry chickens which is causing massive losses to poultry farmers.

Developed with recombinant DNA technology, it is the first such vaccine developed in veterinary sciences in the country and will soon be available in the market for farmers.

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IVRI is a pioneer research institute for veterinary research under the umbrella of ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research). A major aspect of the institute is to develop technologies and vaccines to benefit the veterinary sector of the country.

Bursal or Gumboro disease is caused by an infection of a certain kind of virus that hampers the immune system of the chickens making them susceptible to other diseases.

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"The infection is contagious and even if a single bird in the poultry farm is infected it spreads throughout the flock rendering the flock useless for the poultry farmers," said Dr. Sohini Dey, the lead investigator of the vaccine project. The bursal disease is among the top five infections that cause maximum damage to poultry birds, she added.

"The biggest drawback of the infection is that it leaves the infected bird with a compromised immune system. In such conditions if the bird gets infected by any other disease, no other vaccine has any effect on that bird," explained Dey who has been working on the disease for over a decade. "The vaccine is fit to be used in a day-old bird, thus ensuring maximum protection from infection," she explained.

Dey's team of investigators including Dr. C.Madhan Mohan and Dr. R.Saravanan, got a shot in the arm in 2016 when their project received funding from the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India under the aegis of Make in India concept.

The team was able to develop the vaccine named SVP – Gumboro Vac in 2019 itself but took a few more years to complete the other tests before being released in the market. IVRI, Bareilly on Wednesday transferred the vaccine technology to Hester Biosciences Ltd., a private firm, which is the second largest poultry vaccine manufacturer in the country.

Dr. Triveni Dutt, Director of IVRI said, "This is a major achievement for the institute. We are hopeful that the vaccine will prove to be a game changer in poultry farming and make the vocation more profitable for our farmers."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)