Trial injection of AVAC ASF LIVE vaccine for breeding pigs

100% of vaccinated pigs have antibodies against ASF virus

At the pig farm of AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock Company (Ba Khe village, Tan Tien commune, Van Giang district, Hung Yen province), AVAC organized a tour to the event of injecting the second dose of African swine fever (ASF) vaccine for breeding pigs.

Preparing African swine fever vaccine for the second injection for breeding pigs. Photo: Hong Tham .

The event attracted the participation of many scientists, livestock enterprises, veterinary associations and international organizations. This is a pilot model to evaluate the protective effectiveness, safety and impact of AVAC's African swine fever vaccine (AVAC ASF LIVE) on the reproductive performance of sows and boars.

Mr. Nguyen Van Diep, General Director of AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock Company, said: “The AVAC ASF LIVE vaccine has been licensed by the Department of Animal Health for use in pigs since July 2023. To date, the product has been trusted by many levels of government and farmers thanks to its clear safety and effectiveness. However, AVAC has determined that expanding the use of the vaccine to breeding pigs, including sows and boars, is a strategic step.”

Over the past 2 years, AVAC's research and development (R&D) department has continuously conducted small-scale ASF vaccine trials (10 - 80 sows). Since March 2025, the Company has officially coordinated with the Central Veterinary Medicine Diagnostic Center, a number of livestock enterprises and scientists to deploy a large-scale testing model, including 270 gilts, arranged for experiments with clear controls.

“The first injection was given on March 11, 2025, and the results after the first injection were very positive. By April 2, 2025 - 22 days after the first injection - all 270 pigs that received the normal dose and the overdose (10 times higher) were completely healthy, with no clinical abnormalities,” Mr. Diep emphasized.

ELISA antibody testing results showed that 100% of vaccinated pigs had antibodies against ASF virus - a sign that the vaccine created a good immune response.

Meanwhile, the 5 unvaccinated control animals were all negative for both antibodies and viremia. In addition, saliva and wastewater samples of the vaccinated animals did not detect ASF virus, confirming that the risk of spreading the vaccine virus is very low. This demonstrates the high safety of the product when put into use.

The first dose was administered on March 11, 2025, and the results after the first dose were very positive. Photo: Hong Tham .

Willing to share transparent and objective data

Mr. Diep shared: “We built the experimental model in an open and transparent manner. We invited scientists, international experts, industry associations, businesses and farmers to monitor from the first injection to the later reproductive stages. The goal is to create a model, a scientific, transparent and complete data set on the effectiveness, safety and reproductive performance after vaccination.”

Regarding the evaluation of the productivity of pigs after vaccination, Mr. Diep said that AVAC has conducted research and monitoring for over 2 years. The current model with nearly 300 sows is specially designed to serve the purpose of evaluating reproductive performance after vaccination.

With a large enough scale and long-term monitoring, the model allows for the collection of synchronous, reliable, and statistically valuable data, helping to accurately assess the effectiveness and impact of the AVAC ASF LIVE vaccine on breeding pigs.

It is expected that in about 5 months, during the pig breeding period, AVAC will continue to invite parties back to the farm to directly evaluate reproductive efficiency and the level of long-term protection.

Since March 2025, AVAC has deployed a large-scale experimental model, including 270 gilts, arranged in a clearly controlled experiment. Photo: Hong Tham .

According to Mr. Diep, AVAC has optimized and proposed the ASF vaccination process for sows and boars. For sows and boars at the young stage, vaccination should be similar to that for pigs for meat, that is, starting from 4 weeks of age. Before the first mating, gilts need to be vaccinated 2 times 3 weeks apart, in which the second dose should be injected 2 weeks before mating.

For pigs that have bred, booster vaccination is required at each breeding cycle, specifically 1 to 14 days before mating (ie about 2 - 3 weeks after giving birth) to ensure effective protection.

AVAC has cooperated with the Central Veterinary Drug Testing Center I to develop and complete a set of criteria for evaluating ASF vaccines on breeding pigs. In the coming time, the Company will propose the Department of Animal Health (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) to conduct official testing and trials of AVAC ASF LIVE vaccine on breeding pigs. This evaluation process is expected to last about 5 - 6 months.

“After the second injection, we continue to take samples after 2 weeks, closely monitor the health of the pigs and update clinical results daily. We hope these results will become a reliable source of scientific data for both management agencies and the livestock community,” Mr. Diep emphasized.

Not only actively establishing reliable product data sets through testing models, AVAC also demonstrates a willingness to expand cooperation and data sharing.

“We are ready to cooperate with domestic and foreign livestock companies and laboratories to consult and evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine on pigs, sows and boars. When officially approved for circulation by the authorities, the AVAC ASF LIVE vaccine will become an effective tool to help protect livestock, contribute to disease control and improve livestock farming efficiency,” Mr. Diep confidently said.

Mr. Nguyen Van Diep, General Director of AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock Company, shared: “Recently, many livestock farmers have proactively used AVAC's ASF vaccine not only on pigs but also on sows and achieved safe results. This field data is the basis for AVAC to confidently deploy a pilot model for more than 2 years at Dinh Du farm (Van Lam, Hung Yen), as well as evaluate the quality of this vaccine on a scale of about 270 sows in the reserve stage”.

Source: https://nongnghiep.vn/tiem-thu-nghiem-vacxin-avac-asf-live-cho-lon-giong-d746232.html