Hanoi: Vietnam will send 150,000 doses of its African swine fever vaccine to the Philippines on Thursday, state media said, although it has not yet been approved internationally.
The illness — which does not affect humans — is highly contagious and fatal for pigs, and an outbreak is potentially devastating for the pork industry, experts say.
The shipment of the vaccine, developed by AVAC Vietnam (AVAC), is part of 600,000 doses ordered by the Philippine government, Vietnam News Agency quoted the company’s general director Nguyen Van Diep as saying.
Vietnam approved two African swine fever vaccines for domestic use in July 2023, saying it was the first country to do so.
But neither of the vaccines has been approved internationally.
In October 2023, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) issued a statement warning veterinary authorities and the pig industry of the “risk from use of sub-standard vaccines.”
It did not specifically mention Vietnam.
According to Vietnam News Agency, Diep said AVAC had already exported 300,000 doses to the Philippines in 2023. Other state media reports said this batch had been used for an “evaluation.”
The company is seeking approval for its vaccine in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Myanmar and Nigeria.
A team from the Philippines was in Vietnam earlier in the week to check on the production of the vaccines, he added, according to VNA.
Diep said 2.3 million doses have been used in Vietnam since July 2023.
According to media reports, authorities in Vietnam have been trying to encourage farmers to use the vaccine to prevent African swine fever from spreading among their herds.
The ministry of agriculture and rural development reported in mid July that Vietnam had recorded 34,000 infected cases since the beginning of the year.
AVAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.
A 2018 outbreak of African swine fever in China — the world’s largest pork producer — caused millions of pigs to be slaughtered to stop its spread.
Vietnam to send its swine fever vaccine to Philippines
https://arab.news/m8w8s
Vietnam to send its swine fever vaccine to Philippines
- The shipment of the vaccine, developed by AVAC Vietnam (AVAC), is part of 600,000 doses ordered by the Philippine government
- Vietnam approved two African swine fever vaccines for domestic use in July 2023
Afghanistan says it thwarted Pakistani airstrike on Bagram Air Base as fighting enters fourth day
- The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years
- Pakistan accuses Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it
KABUL: Afghanistan thwarted attempted airstrikes on Bagram Air Base, the former US military base north of Kabul, authorities said Sunday, while cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan stretched into a fourth day.
The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years, with Pakistan declaring that it’s in “open war” with Afghanistan.
The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India.
Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants until a Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting. But several rounds of peace talks in Turkiye in November failed to produce a lasting agreement, and the two sides have occasionally traded fire since then.
On Sunday, the police headquarters of Parwan province, where Bagram is located, said in a statement that several Pakistani military jets had entered Afghan airspace “and attempted to bomb Bagram Air Base” at around 5 a.m.
The statement said Afghan forces responded with “anti-aircraft and missile defense systems” and had managed to thwart the attack.
There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government regarding Kabul’s claim of attempted airstrikes on Bagram or the ongoing fighting.
Bagram was the United States’ largest military base in Afghanistan. It was taken over by the Taliban as they swept across the country and took control in the wake of the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021. Last year, US President Donald Trump suggested he wanted to reestablish a US presence at the base.
The current fighting began when Afghanistan launched a broad cross-border attack on Thursday night, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous Sunday.
Pakistan had said its airstrike had targeted the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Afghanistan had said only civilians were killed.
The TTP militant group, which is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, operates inside Pakistan, where it has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings and other attacks over the years.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing a safe haven within Afghanistan for the TTP, an accusation that Afghanistan denies.
After Thursday’s Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared that “our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”
In the ongoing fighting, each side claims to have killed hundreds of the other side’s forces — and both governments put their own casualties at drastically lower numbers.
Two Pakistani security officials said that Pakistani ground forces were still in control on Sunday of a key Afghan post and a 32-square-kilometer area in the southern Zhob sector near Kandahar province, after having seized it during fighting Friday. The captured post and surrounding area remain under Pakistani control, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
In Kabul, the Afghan government rejected Pakistan’s claims. Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat called the reports “baseless.”
Afghan officials said that fighting had continued overnight and into Sunday in the border areas.
The police command spokesman for Nangarhar province, Said Tayyeb Hammad, said that anti-aircraft missiles were used from the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and surrounding areas on Pakistani fighter jets flying overhead Sunday morning.
Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatulah Khowarazmi said that Afghan forces had launched counterattacks with snipers across the border from Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar provinces overnight. He said that two Pakistani drones had been shot down and dozens of Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Fitrat said that Pakistani drone attacks hit civilian homes in Nangarhar province late Saturday, killing a woman and a child, while mortar fire killed another civilian when it hit a home in Paktia province.
There was no immediate response to the claims from Pakistani officials.
