Vaccines Sent to China’s Sichuan to Tackle Pig-Borne Disease

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Guangzhou, 31 July: The first batch of vaccines for streptococcus swine type II will be delivered by air to Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province from Guangzhou at 6.00 p.m. [local time] Sunday [31 July]. According to the Yongshun Biomedical Company in Guangdong Province, about 160 boxes of such vaccines, enough for 350,000 pigs, will be delivered to Sichuan in the first batch.

Still larger quantities of such vaccines are being produced, the source said, adding that vaccines for 10 million pigs will be carried to the epidemic-afflicted areas. According to directions of the vaccines, pigs should be given two injections of such vaccines within 15 days, which will promise an immunization period of above four months.

It is the first massive production of the vaccines for streptococcus swine type II in China, and experts from the Ministry of Agriculture has monitored the whole process of production. Experts from the Ministry of Agriculture demanded that the actual use of the vaccines be guided by the local expert group in light of the concrete situation.

According to reports from the Ministry of Health, by 1200 July 30 Sichuan Province had reported 174 cases of swine streptococosis II, including 19 confirmed cases, 104 clinical diagnosed cases and 51 suspected ones. Of the above-mentioned cases, twelve have been discharged from hospital, 34 are dead, and 28 others are in critical condition.