Lumpi-ProVacInd Vaccine: How ICAR’s new vaccine against Lumpy Skin Disease, the viral infection killing India’s cattle, will work

Source: The post is based on the article “How ICAR’s new vaccine against Lumpy Skin Disease, the viral infection killing India’s cattle, will work” published in Indian Express on 4th September 2022

What is the News?

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is aiming to commercially launch the “Lumpi-ProVacInd” Vaccine.

What is Lumpi-ProVacInd Vaccine?

It is an indigenously-developed vaccine against the Lumpy Skin Disease(LSD) virus.

Developed by: ICAR’s National Research Centre on Equines(NRCE) at Hisar, Haryana and the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) at Izatnagar, UP

Type: It is a live attenuated vaccine, similar to those used against tuberculosis, measles, mumps and rubella.

Efficacy: This vaccine provides 100% protection against LSD in cattle.

How was the vaccine developed? 

Researchers collected skin nodule samples from LSD-infected cows. The virus was then isolated.

The next step was to propagate the isolated virus in African green monkey kidney (Vero) cells used in cultures. The culturing was done over 50 generations (“passages”). As the virus mutated after repeated passages, its virulence or disease-causing ability weakened

The attenuated live virus was identified as a vaccine candidate after the 50th passage and tested in the laboratory on mice and rabbits.