Indigenously developed Lumpi-ProVac vaccine to tackle Lumpy Skin Disease

Aiming to ensure large-scale production of vaccine for controlling Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), a partnership was signed in the presence of Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, the Chief Minister (CM) and Deputy CM of Maharashtra.

The minister said that this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will also ensure large-scale production of goatpox vaccine for future needs of India’s livestock sector. Currently, goatpox vaccine is used for controlling LSD in animals, and this has been proven effective against lumpy.

National Centre for Veterinary Type Culture, ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines (ICAR-NRCE), Hisar (Haryana), in collaboration with ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izatnagar (Uttar Pradesh) developed a homologous live-attenuated LSD vaccine, named Lumpi-ProVac.

Agrinnovate India (AgIn), the commercial arm of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare granted “non-exclusive rights” for commercial production of “Lumpi-ProVac,” to the Institute of Veterinary Biological Products (IVBP), Pune, recently.

Lumpi-ProVac is safe in animals and induces LSDV-specific antibody-and cell-mediated immune response, besides providing complete protection against lethal LSDV challenge.

The vaccine is used for the prophylactic immunisation of animals against LSD, which illicits protection for about one year.

While the vaccine is stored at four degrees Celsius, it must be shipped on ice and must be used within a few hours after reconstitution. The patent has been filed by the ICAR for the technology.

LSD has been reported in various parts of the country from 2019 while the first case was reported in the state of Odisha.

After that, it has spread to multiple states in the country.

In 2019, deaths of a large number of cattle has been reported from different states with high morbidity, especially in the North-West region of the country.

The disease has been controlled and contained with the available goatpox vaccine in the country.

Considering the heavy production losses and mortality of a sizeable number of cattle, the ICAR has initiated research on development of indigenous homologous vaccine against LSD.

Edits by EP News Bureau