South Korea eyes local foot-and-mouth vaccine manufacturing plant by 2020
As part of its efforts to combat the outbreak of the contagious viral animal illness, foot-and-mouth disease, it is planning to set up a manufacturing plant to locally produce vaccines by 2020.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy currently relies on imported vaccines from manufacturers such as animal health business Merial to regularly inoculate its livestock and to bolster inventories during outbreaks of the disease.
“After securing original vaccine production technology by 2017 based on our six-year research result… we plan to operate a foot-and-mouth vaccine plant in 2020,” Lee Junwon, vice agriculture minister said.
South Korea earlier this month sought emergency vaccine imports after two different types of the disease were found within a week of each other.
Nine cases of foot-and-mouth disease have been confirmed so far in the latest outbreak, but there have been no new cases since February 13, the ministry statement said. As of February 19, some 1,400 cattle had been culled.
South Korea plans to import a total of 32 million doses of foot-and-mouth vaccines this year, the vice-minister said.
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