Winning the animal disease arms race

Disease not only kills or stunts animals, it can also destroy a fragile farm economy.

Many millions of doses of a wide variety of vaccines are manufactured every year by Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) as weapons in the ongoing battle against animal diseases.

Not only are OBP's vaccines being harnessed in the war against animal disease. The involvement of OBP's veterinary scientists is also in demand, particularly in Africa, where their knowledge of African animal diseases and their treatment is unrivalled.

A typical example of the beneficial effect of OBP's involvement in Africa has been the call from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for advice on the control of the damaging economic effects of Rift Valley fever among sheep and goats in the Horn of Africa.

At an international conference on the problem, OBP was asked to contribute expertise on the use of Rift Valley vaccine to control the disease.

Closer to home, experiments at OBP have seen encouraging progress in the development of a new and improved vaccine against the disease African horse sickness, which despite the development of safeguards and immunisation programmes remains a constant threat to farmers, breeders and owners.

These are just two examples demonstrating how the knowledge of South African scientists and OBP's vaccines are winning the "arms race" against diseases which not only maim or kill animals, but can destroy a nation's economy.