Biovet's LSD vaccine gets CDSCO nod, to make 500 million doses per year

In the last two years, around 200,000 cattle have died, millions lost their milk production capabilities due to LSD nationwide

Bharat Biotech’s animal health arm Biovet has got the nod from the Indian drug regulator for a vaccine developed for lumpy skin disease (LSD) among dairy cattle and buffalos.

 

Biovet aims to make 500 million doses of the vaccine- Biolumpivaxin- annually and plans to launch it soon.

 

In the past two years, around 200,000 cattle have died, and millions more have lost their milk production capabilities due to LSD nationwide.

 

Biolumpivaxin, the company claimed, is the world’s “safest and first ever” Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals (DIVA) marker vaccine. It has received a licence from the Central Drug Standards Control Organization (CDSCO) and is a single vaccination regimen given once in a year to cattle and buffaloes above 3 months of age.

 

 

India has an LSD vaccine – Lumpi-ProVac – developed by 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).

 

Biovet, which is based in Mallur, Karnataka, has developed Biolumpivaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). It has been tested at ICAR-NRCE and at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI).

 

This novel Indigenous live-attenuated marker vaccine was developed using the LSD virus/Ranchi/2019 vaccine strain ICAR-NRCE, Hisar, in collaboration with Bharat Biotech’s Biovet.

 

“The vaccine is the result of three years of dedicated research by scientists at NRCE, led by Dr. Naveen Kumar (now Director, NIV-Pune) under the leadership of Dr. B. N. Tripathi (former DDG, Animal Sciences, ICAR, now vice chancellor, SKUAST, Jammu),” Bharat Biotech said.

 

Krishna Ella, founder of Biovet, said, “This DIVA marker vaccine is a game-changer for veterinary medicine for disease surveillance and eradication programmes. Epidemiologists and field workers can now distinguish if an animal received Biolumpivaxin or was previously infected with LSD.”

 

“The CDSCO licensure for this vaccine is a significant step toward India's self-reliance (Atmanirbhar Bharat) in veterinary healthcare, which avoids dependency on imported vaccines. As India moves towards a disease-free livestock population, this path-breaking vaccine will play a crucial role in ensuring the dairy industry's sustainability,” Ella said.

 

Biolumpivaxin is provided in freeze-dried form with stabilising agents for long-term stability. The presentation is in multi dose vials from 25 doses up to a maximum of 100 doses per vial and the vaccine is stable at 2-80 C storage temperature.

 

LSD is characterised by the development of skin nodules across the body, fever, swollen lymph nodes, decreased milk yield and difficulty in movement. LSD virus transmission is largely attributed to vector bites, with mosquitoes, ticks, and other biting insects playing an essential role.

 

During the 2022 LSD outbreak in India, morbidity rates reached up to 80 per cent with case fatality rates as high as 67 per cent, across states such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Jammu & Kashmir.

 

“This caused an estimated economic loss of over Rs 18,337.76 crore and a 26 per cent decline in milk production, significantly harming the dairy industry and the rural economy. In India, LSD has emerged as a major threat to dairy productivity, impacting millions of small-scale marginal farmers,” Bharat Biotech said in a statement on Monday.

 

LSD was first reported in Zambia, Africa, in 1929. For several decades, the disease remained confined to Africa before spreading transcontinental to Egypt in 1988 and Israel in 1989. Over the years, the LSD virus has expanded its geographic range across the Middle East, Europe, and most recently, numerous Asian countries, including India. The first confirmed outbreak in India occurred in 2019, and since then, LSD virus has rapidly spread across multiple states, leading to substantial economic losses and a decline in milk production.

 

Vaccination has proven to be the most effective strategy for controlling LSD virus, in particular with homologous vaccines. Following vaccination of cattle and buffaloes, the vaccine instructs the immune system to mount a defense mechanism against LSD virus infection in cattle and buffaloes as a prophylaxis measure. It may take 3 to 4 weeks to mount desired immunity in the vaccinated animals. Hence, advance vaccination to be done as a preventive measure in order to protect dairy cattle and buffaloes of all age groups from LSD virus infection.