Increasing local production of livestock vaccines

The decision to embark, albeit belated, on manufacturing livestock vaccines locally promises to meet a long-felt need. It comes against the backdrop of the overdependence on the import of livestock medicines including vaccines, and the skyrocketing prices of chickens and livestock meat. The Department of Livestock Services (DLS) is taking preparations to manufacture the vaccines.

The local producers of livestock medicines have the capability to supply only 12 per cent of the demand for livestock vaccines. Imported vaccines have raised the cost of rearing poultry birds and livestock, and hence the prices of their meat. Thanks to the formidably higher price of the livestock and poultry meat in the market, a large number of people have lately cut down on the consumption of the two chief protein sources. It has been learnt that DLS has taken up a project to study feasibility of the vaccine-production enhancement programme. The feasibility project costs Tk 173.04 million. Given the overdependence on the imported medicine that makes production of meat costlier, large-scale manufacture of equally effective vaccines at a low price can make a difference in meat prices. Businesses say they import around $47m worth of vaccines annually.  Since bird flu and various cattle diseases break out from time to time, there is no alternative to enhancing local production capacity.

Against the backdrop of the country's impressive growth of livestock and poultry production in the last few years, and the rising demand for medicines, the need for livestock and poultry vaccines has also gone up. Currently, the Livestock Research Institute (LRI) produces 320 million vaccines, DLS data show. The gap between production capacity and requirement is already wide and it is widening. The contribution of livestock to the GDP was 1.90 per cent, the DLS data show. Though not a roaring one, the livestock and poultry sector has been showing great prospects in recent years. Despite the periodic blows dealt to it by the bird flu scourge in the past, the poultry industry has lately managed to come up as an industry full of untapped potential. Thousands of rural young entrepreneurs, as well as women, have found a strong footing in their careers by setting up poultry and livestock farms. Of them, it is the smaller farms which are hard hit by the high prices of imported medicines. Strong and all-out initiatives, thus, ought to be taken to facilitate these farms' operation.

Out of the import of livestock medicines, including vaccines, the private sector handles nearly $25 million worth of vaccines for the poultry sector. A sum of $20 million is spent by the public sector for a similar import. The private sector has to import another $2-3 million worth of vaccines for livestock like goats, buffalos etc. In many countries the task of manufacturing the vaccines rests with the private sector. The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL) has taken the right decision by opting for enhancement of vaccine-manufacturing capacity. If left to the private sector, there is an apprehension that vaccines will not be cheaper because of business monopoly. Then there is the question of quality maintenance.