The leading vaccine manufacturer announced a strategic partnership with the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Institute on Monday to develop such vaccines that can be scalable at a commercial level.
In India, there is currently no commercial fish vaccine available to prevent major aquaculture infections. As a result of infections caused by a variety of bacterial, viral, fungal, and other aetiological agents, the country's aquaculture industry has suffered economic losses.
CIFE will provide technology for two inactivated bacterial vaccines as part of the collaboration: one for Columnaris Disease, a serious condition affecting many freshwater fish species, and the other for Edwardsiellosis, which causes high mortality and severe economic losses. Both diseases are extremely common in freshwater fishes and are thought to be widespread, according to IIL and CIFE officials.
Due to the lack of vaccines, such infections are managed are using anti-infectives and other conventional measures at present. We are the first in India to enter the fish vaccine market, and we are committed to launching more and more products for the aquaculture market to help shrimp and fish growers increase productivity and protect fish schools from various diseases, IIL managing director Dr. K Anand Kumar told media.
He also said with technology transfer from various ICAR fisheries institutes, the company intends to introduce vaccines and immune stimulants. IIL is currently evaluating several fish vaccine candidates for commercialization. The introduction of such vaccines will help to reduce the indiscriminate use of chemical or antibiotic-based treatment methods. This in turn will aid in the reduction of antimicrobial resistance.
In support of India's Blue Revolution, I am pleased that CIFE and IIL have joined forces to develop India's first bacterial fish vaccine, said the Director and Vice Chancellor of ICAr-CIFE Dr. CN Ravishankar
IIL operates one of the world's largest veterinary vaccine manufacturing plants. IIL has sufficient infrastructure and cold chain distribution capabilities to reach various parts of India and the global market. Because of this logistical flexibility, many IIL products now hold market leadership positions.
IIL is a major player in the Indian human vaccine market, focusing on pediatric and rabies vaccines. IIL also supplies pediatric vaccines to India's massive Universal Immunization Program.
