An MoU for production of Goat Pox vaccine and "Lumpi-ProVac" vaccine was signed in Nagpur on 29th December,2022  in the presence of Shri Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, the Chief Minister and Deputy CM of Maharashtra. Shri Rupala praised the commendable effort put forth by ICAR in developing indigenous vaccine Lumpi-ProVac for LSD. He further said that this MoU will also ensure large-scale production of Goat Pox vaccine for future needs of India's livestock sector. At present Goat Pox vaccine is used for controlling Lumpy Skin Disease in animals and this has been proven effective against Lumpy.

He further highlighted the relevance of the technology and requested the IVBP, Pune to start manufacturing the vaccine at large scale without any delay so as to make the vaccine available for the use by the department for the help of the farmers by overcoming the disease.

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 (UP) developed a homologous live-attenuated LSD vaccine, named Lumpi-ProVac^Ind. Agrinnovate India Limited  (AgIn), the commercial arm of DARE, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Govt. of India granted  “Non-Exclusive Rights” for Commercial production of “Lumpi-ProVac”, to Institute of Veterinary Biological Products (IVBP) , Pune today.

Lumpi-ProVacind is safe in animals and induces LSDV-specific antibody-and cell-mediated immune response, besides providing complete protection against lethal LSDV challenge. Lumpi-ProVac^ind is used for the prophylactic immunization of animals against Lumpy Skin Disease, which illicit protection for about one year.  A single dose of the vaccine contains 10^3.5 TCID50 of live-attenuated LSDV (Ranchi strain). The vaccine is stored at 4°C. The vaccine 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.

The event was graced by Shri Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Govt. of India, Shri Eknath Shinde, Chief-Minister, Govt. of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief-Minister, Govt. of Maharashtra, Shri Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Minister of Animal Husbandry, Govt. of Maharashtra, Dr. B.N. Tripathi, DDG (Animal Science), ICAR, Dr. Triveni Dutt, Director, ICAR-IVRI, Dr.  T K Bhattacharya, Director, ICAR-NRCE, Mr. Sachindra Pratap Singh, Commissioner (AH), Govt. of Maharashtra and Dr. Praveen Malik, CEO, AgIn, other officials from ICAR and AgIn. Agrinnovate, granted a non-exclusive license to IVBP, Pune for ten years.

The dignitaries congratulated the IVBP, Pune, ICAR-NRCE, ICAR-IVRI and AgIn for the successful transfer of the technology. It is  expected that the vaccine technology will definitely meet out the standard of the market and significantly provide a defence mechanism to control the devastating lumpy skin disease.

Background:

The Lumpy Skin Disease has been reported in India from 2019 while first case was reported in the state of Odisha. After that, it has spread to multiple states in the country. In 2019, death of a large number of cattle has been reported from different states with high morbidity especially in 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 sizable number of cattle, ICAR initiated research on development of indigenous homologous vaccine against Lumpy Skin Disease.

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 SS/IG