June 22, 2023 • 18 mins
What if you could help prevent the spread of African swine fever and protect your pigs from this devastating virus? Join us as we dive into a conversation with Dr. Pam Luca and Dr. Loya Inca Asala from the West African Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases. In this fascinating discussion, we explore the transmission, symptoms, and crucial prevention measures of this viral disease that's been plaguing Nigeria's swine population for years, causing yearly outbreaks and huge challenges for pig farmers.
But that's not all! We also have an exclusive chat with Dr. Asala from the National Veterinary Research Institute in Nigeria, who shares insights on producing 20 locally-made vaccines. Discover the process of vaccine acceptance, distribution, and costs. With prevention being the key to a healthy livestock population, listen in to find out how the National Veterinary Research Institute is meeting the national demand for vaccines and making them more affordable for smaller producers. Don't miss this opportunity to gain invaluable knowledge that could make a massive difference in your swine farming business!
In our Viral Minute, you will be learning about the West Nile virus' impact in Texas, with 77 cases reported in 2021.
Thanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast. Be sure to visit infectiousscience.org to join the conversation, access the show notes, and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter to receive our free materials.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is a podcast about one health the idea that
the health of humans, animals,plants and the environment that
we all share are intrinsicallylinked.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Coming to you from the University of Texas Medical
Branch in the Galveston NationalLaboratory.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is Infectious Science.
We're enthusiasm for science.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
This is Infectious Science.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Welcome to another episode of the Infectious
Science podcast.
This is Dr Matthew Daszho.
Today we are continuing ourconversation with an outstanding
group of Nigerian cliniciansand scientists that form part of
the core of the West AfricanCenter for Emerging Infectious
Diseases.
In the last episode we startedoff by hearing from Dr Scott
Weaver, professor and chair ofmicrobiology and immunology at
(00:56):
UTMB, about the West AfricanCenter, how that program got
started and where they hoped togo moving forward.
Then Dr Nathan Sheahu, aclinician scientist, and Dr Pam
Luca, a veterinary scientist,shared their perspectives on
emerging infectious diseases,one health and scientific
collaboration.
They also shared some storiesabout their careers, how they
(01:16):
got to be doing the importantwork that they are doing to make
the world a better, more safeplace.
In this part two of theInfectious Science on the Road
in Nigeria series, dr DennisBenta continues the conversation
with West African Center forEmerging Infectious Disease
colleagues Dr Pam Luca and hiscolleague Dr Loya Inca Asala, a
scientist at the NationalVeterinary Research Institute,
(01:38):
about African swine fever, thelivestock production industry
and producing vaccines forveterinary use in Nigeria.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Let's talk about another hemorrhagic fever, but
not a zoonotic one.
Let's talk about hemorrhagicfever in pigs.
Let's talk about African swinefever.
Pam, you've worked on Africanswine fever.
You're still working on it.
It's been in the news fromChina to Central Europe.
Was recently discovered inHispaniola, again after 30 years
(02:11):
.
Tell us a little bit about yourwork.
The African swine fever.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
African swine fever is actually a viral disease.
It's not zoonotic but it's adisease of pigs that is caused
by the African swine fever virus, because it was first reported
in Africa, that was in Kenya in1921.
So African swine fever is likeabout a hundred years now.
So after that first report itwas thought to be an African
(02:36):
thing And a lot of work has beendone in that part of East
Africa to Southern Africa, whereit has also infected a lot of
pigs, And eventually it moved toEurope, to Spain, Portugal.
In the 60s It also got to theCaribbean at some point.
All those ones got eradicated,I think before 2005, when it was
(02:57):
reported in Georgia.
Before then it was only endemicin the island of Sardinia in
Italy.
That was the only place that itwas endemic at that time.
But I think now when it got toGeorgia, from Georgia to the
Russian Federation and thenbefore it moved to China and
then before it came back tocenter Europe, then moving in
(03:20):
and got into the wild boars, Thechallenge with African Swine
fever is that when pigs getinfected they actually die from
it, Because hardly do you havesurvivors And when you do, some
of them have been described ascarriers, whether they shed or
they don't shed, But I think thehypothesis is that they shed
the virus in the environment.
So you need to call them Andwhen they come down, what you
(03:43):
see is that if it's a subacutecase, you just come into the pen
and find pigs dead.
But if it's an acute case,sometimes you come in and maybe
you feed the pigs and then muchlater, when they are supposed to
have eaten all the feed, youstill find feed in their troughs
And sometimes they huddletogether.
There's high fever And youcould also have bleeding, and
(04:04):
you also bleeding through thenose and things like that, And
you could also have subcutaneoushemorrhages on the skin And
before you know it, they alsodie.
And those ones who willeventually recover, maybe
chronic cases, like I said, andthey go on to become carriers.
So you wouldn't want carrierson your farm And because these
(04:25):
are animals that are beingconsumed in high proportion, I
think in terms of peakconsumption globally, I think
peak comes number one at somepoint.
So a lot of people consume porkAnd if it's getting to your
farm it's not something you caneliminate easily.
So nobody wants to have airsaveon this farm because of the
volume of mortality that youhave, And it also doesn't have
(04:48):
vaccine and there's also notherapy.
So the basic thing people do nowis we encourage farmers on
biosecurity.
You know, if you have a goodbiosecurity you're going to keep
the virus away from the farm,But if you have a very poor
biosecurity, in terms of yourpractices, your hygiene, you're
going to be at risk.
So that's a disease thatactually is not even transmitted
(05:11):
by the peak itself.
Human beings are seen as themajor carriers or the major
vectors in terms of thetransmission of the virus,
Although you also have thesylvatic cycle of the virus that
has been transmitted by theonyxodoros, but that is a soft
tick which has only beenreported in East Africa and some
part of Southern Africa.
(05:31):
But for us here in West Africais basically the domestic cycle,
as the peak to peaktransmission that we have.
The vector has not really beenestablished to be responsible
for transmission.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
So you have African swine fever in Nigeria.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yes, we do.
It was first reported in 1996and since then it has been with
us And we have terrible cases ofAfrican swine fever.
And I think right now, almoston a yearly basis, we have
reports of African swine fever.
So it's there and that has beenhaving its toll on farmers.
And so, on a routine basis,what we do is that we receive
samples from farmers When thereare outbreak cases, samples are
(06:11):
collected and sent to the labfor diagnosis and confirmation,
which we do so that farmers willbe able to be guided in what
they do And the healthauthorities are also informed on
what they need to do in termsof control measures.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So if the soft tick that's known to probably
transmit but also maybe alsomaintain the virus in East
Africa and South Africa is notpresent in Nigeria, where does
the virus hide?
Is it always consistentlyimported, Or is there some sort
of an endemic cycle of Africanswine fever?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yeah, it is endemic And sometimes it's maybe
transmitted to formites, like Isaid, because you find in some
places where farmers share a lotof farm implements or where a
particular community will have asingle boa that will be used to
serve the other selves.
So if that peak is infected,for example, the farm is
(07:08):
infected, the virus is in theenvironment.
You can easily get it becausethe virus is a little bit hardy.
You know it's hardy but it'salso liberal in terms of
disinfectant.
But it could also survive inthe environment.
It could survive in yoursausages for a very long time at
certain degrees, in fact inyour minus 80, to survive for
years.
(07:29):
So if you have some of theseinfected animal products, it
could serve in preserving thedisease in the environment.
And again, like I said, it'spossible also that we have the
tick around.
But we have been trying to lookfor the ticks because they are
nocturnal, they feed only atnight, they don't have eyes, so
they only come, feed on the peakand then drop off and hide in
(07:53):
cracks and crevices.
So it's wanting to look forthose ticks Because,
interestingly, there was a timewe checked for antibodies to
tick, salivary antigens And someof the ticks had those
antibodies.
So which means those peaks wereexposed to tick bites, although
not all of them had ASF, some,a few, maybe two, three which
suggests that possibly the tickis around, but the role it plays
(08:15):
in terms of transmission, thatis yet to be established, but we
can't rule that out.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Very interesting.
So with African swine fever yousaid there's no treatment, so
the animals have to be probablydestroyed.
I assume that in Nigeria youhave wild boars are correct And
they're probably persistent toor not as susceptible as the
domestic pigs.
is that correct?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
We don't have wild boars.
The wild boars are usuallyEurope.
What we have are what hawks,what hawks, bush pigs And even
those ones you know, people inNigeria hunt a lot, so the
population of those ones are notmuch in terms of, maybe,
interaction between, let's say,the wild and human interface.
It's not so much there.
(09:03):
What we're thinking isresponsible for the transmission
.
Maybe periodic outbreaks is as aresult of human activities, but
in terms of what hawks, bushpigs, red river hawks is not
well established because there'sno much contact with those ones
.
Usually you find them deep intothe forest, deep into the
wildlife reserve parks, so theyusually don't have them coming
(09:26):
close to human habitation.
And I think there was a timepeople went in there to sample
those ones and none has beentested positive.
So we wouldn't want to say thatthey have a role for say, but
what we think is that if fromthe domestic it gets into the
wild, it also supports theSylvatic circle.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
One last question I had for you, maybe to wrap up
that topic.
Can you tell us about the pigindustry in Nigeria?
What is it compared to cattle,to chickens, and where and what
parts of the country are themain producers?
Speaker 4 (10:01):
The pig population is not like the cattle.
I think we have about seven,eight million pigs in the
country in terms of populationAnd it's not evenly distributed
really.
You have more large-scalefarmers in the southern part of
the country and then up northyou have small-scale farmers,
those who keep in small numbersfive to ten, maybe at most 50.
(10:24):
And those ones are usuallyrural farmers who keep them in
small numbers because it servesas a source of income When they
are in need of money.
they need to pay school fees,they need to take their children
to hospital.
they sell one, get quick moneyand then solve one or two
problems.
So the population here is notas high as down south, because
(10:46):
in the south you have peoplekeeping up to a thousand, two
thousand pigs.
Yeah, a single individual canhave that number of pigs in his
farm.
It's a growing industry and Ithink a lot of people now have
turned to eating pork and wealso have a lot of Chinese who
are coming in, so Chinese alsopatronize a lot of the pig
industry.
So it's a growing industrybecause the pig is considered as
(11:08):
a very good bio-converter,because it converts any waste
material.
So people don't really put inmuch but you get something at
the end of the day.
So I would say it's a growingindustry.
But again up north we have thepig market.
here The pig markets are in thenorth.
We collect pigs fromindividuals from different
locations into the centralmarket and they are being
(11:31):
purchased and taken down southwhere most of the consumers are.
So at the end of the day, whenyou have those ones are infected
and they're taken to the marketand then some of them are sold.
some are not sold.
the ones that are not sold aretaken back but they already be
mixed with infected ones.
So you take an infection backto your farm and then the ones
that are taken down south, ifthey are being infected or have
(11:54):
come in contact with infectedpigs, they are also taken.
So the pig market also servesas a mixing point for healthy
and infected, and then healthyones become infected Or they
become carriers.
so you end up contaminating theenvironment and other pigs also
come down Very interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Thank you, yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Don't let the name West Nile Virus trick you.
Outbreaks of this virus happenall across the United States and
even in Texas.
According to the CDC, therewere almost 2,700 cases in the
United States and 77 cases inTexas in 2021.
It's transmitted throughmosquitoes, which means wear
(12:36):
your insect repellent during thesummer fall months.
One in five people developsymptoms such as fevers, rash
and headaches, but some peoplecan develop serious symptoms
such as convulsions, vision lossand paralysis.
Seven Texans died last year tothe West Nile Virus.
There are no vaccines or cures,so prevention is our best
(12:58):
solution, and now you know aboutthe West Nile Virus.
This has been a viral minute.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So we had the chance today to see the National
Veterinary Research Instituteand I saw that you're actually
producing 20 vaccines locally,dr Asala.
maybe you can tell us a littlebit about what it takes to
produce locally, and I'mespecially interested in the
vaccine acceptance and how doyou distribute the vaccines to
(13:26):
the end users.
Is this an easy process?
I know cost of vaccines isalways an issue.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
Yeah, for the National Veterinary Research
Institute.
Looking at our history, we willbe 100 years in two years' time
and actually how the city cameto be was as a result of
Rindapest that ravaged someparts of West Africa, the cattle
population.
So then we were under theBritish colonial rule and
(13:53):
through the initiative, we'reproducing hyperimmune sera in
order to tackle the disease.
And so After Rindapest I thinkin 2011, nigeria finally
declared free of Rindapest, sowe're Rindapest free at the
moment.
So the course of the journey,other outbreaks of other
diseases of importance came intobeing, like Newcastle,
(14:13):
brucellosis and all that.
And with that, vaccines weredeveloped with expertise and
support from also Britishgovernment.
And over the years, as timewent on, we kept on improving on
what we were doing.
From using tissue culture wecame to sell culture and
actually we're still producingusing the conventional vaccine
technology.
(14:33):
And with that, vorma's actually, or NVR has actually made a
name and we have the onlyvaccine producing institution or
establishment in Nigeria.
And for the demand, in short, weare able to meet the national
demand.
So government also, or pharmacy, rely on importation of other
foreign vaccines to be able tomeet the demand.
(14:55):
So for distribution andacceptance, in short, we're
overwhelmed by requests and likewe're always at our toes to
produce, like I was in themeeting I had to leave three
times because one call or theother one vaccine that needed to
be dispensed And for us tofacilitate distribution around
the country.
We have about 23 outstations,so we have our stations in 23
(15:17):
states out of the 36 where wehave staff via which also render
both diagnosis, also facilitatedistribution.
So we move vaccines from Vormato such places and then it can
easily be reached by farmers andalso the staff and our outfit
also render services to farmers,to farms.
That way our vaccine coverageis national and sometimes we
(15:39):
also have requests from sistercolleagues like West Africa, for
vaccines like againsttransbound diseases, like CBPP,
fmt and that.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
So Dr Luca was talking about the smaller big
holders in the north, not somuch the big markets or owners
in the in the south.
Do they have the means toafford these vaccines?
I would imagine they are thelowest cost, but still is this
for those smaller producers likedoable?
Speaker 6 (16:07):
Yeah, and for us, remember, we national institute,
so our boxes are usuallysubsidized by the government,
And then we have a lot ofgovernment interventions.
At the moment, for instance,for the rabies and the rabies
vaccine, there's a nationalcampaign and we are to produce
about 2 million doses of rabiesvaccines and it's distributed
free to all the states, and soall what the state government
(16:29):
needs to do is just to mobilizestrategies for vaccination.
So every year we have a lot ofstates coming in to mitigate and
give support to farmers byprocuring vaccines from us, and
the veterinary ministries oroutfits will now go out to get
those animals vaccinated.
And even if you look at thecost of our vaccines, they're
still relatively cheap andaffordable, because compared to
(16:53):
other foreign vaccines, maybeit's cheaper and those sizes are
usually smaller, so that it caneasily be affordable, because
we are not really for profit ifwe look at it, because we have a
lot of subversion and alsosupport yearly from government
in order to be able to producethese vaccines.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Thanks for listening to the Infectious Science
podcast.
Be sure to hit subscribe andvisit infectiousscienceorg to
join the conversation, accessthe show notes and to sign up
for our newsletter and receiveour free materials.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
If you enjoyed this new episode of Infectious
Science, please leave us areview on Apple Podcasts at
Spotify and go ahead and sharethis episode with some of your
friends.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Also, don't hesitate to ask questions and tell us
what topics you'd like us tocover for future episodes.
To get in touch, drop a line inthe comments section or send us
a message on social media.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So we'll see you next time for a new episode, and in
the meantime, stay happy stayhealthy, stay healthy, stay
interested.
This is a podcast about one health the idea that
the health of humans, animals,plants and the environment that
we all share are intrinsicallylinked.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Coming to you from the University of Texas Medical
Branch in the Galveston NationalLaboratory.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is Infectious Science.
We're enthusiasm for science.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
This is Infectious Science.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Welcome to another episode of the Infectious
Science podcast.
This is Dr Matthew Daszho.
Today we are continuing ourconversation with an outstanding
group of Nigerian cliniciansand scientists that form part of
the core of the West AfricanCenter for Emerging Infectious
Diseases.
In the last episode we startedoff by hearing from Dr Scott
Weaver, professor and chair ofmicrobiology and immunology at
(00:56):
UTMB, about the West AfricanCenter, how that program got
started and where they hoped togo moving forward.
Then Dr Nathan Sheahu, aclinician scientist, and Dr Pam
Luca, a veterinary scientist,shared their perspectives on
emerging infectious diseases,one health and scientific
collaboration.
They also shared some storiesabout their careers, how they
(01:16):
got to be doing the importantwork that they are doing to make
the world a better, more safeplace.
In this part two of theInfectious Science on the Road
in Nigeria series, dr DennisBenta continues the conversation
with West African Center forEmerging Infectious Disease
colleagues Dr Pam Luca and hiscolleague Dr Loya Inca Asala, a
scientist at the NationalVeterinary Research Institute,
(01:38):
about African swine fever, thelivestock production industry
and producing vaccines forveterinary use in Nigeria.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Let's talk about another hemorrhagic fever, but
not a zoonotic one.
Let's talk about hemorrhagicfever in pigs.
Let's talk about African swinefever.
Pam, you've worked on Africanswine fever.
You're still working on it.
It's been in the news fromChina to Central Europe.
Was recently discovered inHispaniola, again after 30 years
(02:11):
.
Tell us a little bit about yourwork.
The African swine fever.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
African swine fever is actually a viral disease.
It's not zoonotic but it's adisease of pigs that is caused
by the African swine fever virus, because it was first reported
in Africa, that was in Kenya in1921.
So African swine fever is likeabout a hundred years now.
So after that first report itwas thought to be an African
(02:36):
thing And a lot of work has beendone in that part of East
Africa to Southern Africa, whereit has also infected a lot of
pigs, And eventually it moved toEurope, to Spain, Portugal.
In the 60s It also got to theCaribbean at some point.
All those ones got eradicated,I think before 2005, when it was
(02:57):
reported in Georgia.
Before then it was only endemicin the island of Sardinia in
Italy.
That was the only place that itwas endemic at that time.
But I think now when it got toGeorgia, from Georgia to the
Russian Federation and thenbefore it moved to China and
then before it came back tocenter Europe, then moving in
(03:20):
and got into the wild boars, Thechallenge with African Swine
fever is that when pigs getinfected they actually die from
it, Because hardly do you havesurvivors And when you do, some
of them have been described ascarriers, whether they shed or
they don't shed, But I think thehypothesis is that they shed
the virus in the environment.
So you need to call them Andwhen they come down, what you
(03:43):
see is that if it's a subacutecase, you just come into the pen
and find pigs dead.
But if it's an acute case,sometimes you come in and maybe
you feed the pigs and then muchlater, when they are supposed to
have eaten all the feed, youstill find feed in their troughs
And sometimes they huddletogether.
There's high fever And youcould also have bleeding, and
(04:04):
you also bleeding through thenose and things like that, And
you could also have subcutaneoushemorrhages on the skin And
before you know it, they alsodie.
And those ones who willeventually recover, maybe
chronic cases, like I said, andthey go on to become carriers.
So you wouldn't want carrierson your farm And because these
(04:25):
are animals that are beingconsumed in high proportion, I
think in terms of peakconsumption globally, I think
peak comes number one at somepoint.
So a lot of people consume porkAnd if it's getting to your
farm it's not something you caneliminate easily.
So nobody wants to have airsaveon this farm because of the
volume of mortality that youhave, And it also doesn't have
(04:48):
vaccine and there's also notherapy.
So the basic thing people do nowis we encourage farmers on
biosecurity.
You know, if you have a goodbiosecurity you're going to keep
the virus away from the farm,But if you have a very poor
biosecurity, in terms of yourpractices, your hygiene, you're
going to be at risk.
So that's a disease thatactually is not even transmitted
(05:11):
by the peak itself.
Human beings are seen as themajor carriers or the major
vectors in terms of thetransmission of the virus,
Although you also have thesylvatic cycle of the virus that
has been transmitted by theonyxodoros, but that is a soft
tick which has only beenreported in East Africa and some
part of Southern Africa.
(05:31):
But for us here in West Africais basically the domestic cycle,
as the peak to peaktransmission that we have.
The vector has not really beenestablished to be responsible
for transmission.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
So you have African swine fever in Nigeria.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yes, we do.
It was first reported in 1996and since then it has been with
us And we have terrible cases ofAfrican swine fever.
And I think right now, almoston a yearly basis, we have
reports of African swine fever.
So it's there and that has beenhaving its toll on farmers.
And so, on a routine basis,what we do is that we receive
samples from farmers When thereare outbreak cases, samples are
(06:11):
collected and sent to the labfor diagnosis and confirmation,
which we do so that farmers willbe able to be guided in what
they do And the healthauthorities are also informed on
what they need to do in termsof control measures.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So if the soft tick that's known to probably
transmit but also maybe alsomaintain the virus in East
Africa and South Africa is notpresent in Nigeria, where does
the virus hide?
Is it always consistentlyimported, Or is there some sort
of an endemic cycle of Africanswine fever?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yeah, it is endemic And sometimes it's maybe
transmitted to formites, like Isaid, because you find in some
places where farmers share a lotof farm implements or where a
particular community will have asingle boa that will be used to
serve the other selves.
So if that peak is infected,for example, the farm is
(07:08):
infected, the virus is in theenvironment.
You can easily get it becausethe virus is a little bit hardy.
You know it's hardy but it'salso liberal in terms of
disinfectant.
But it could also survive inthe environment.
It could survive in yoursausages for a very long time at
certain degrees, in fact inyour minus 80, to survive for
years.
(07:29):
So if you have some of theseinfected animal products, it
could serve in preserving thedisease in the environment.
And again, like I said, it'spossible also that we have the
tick around.
But we have been trying to lookfor the ticks because they are
nocturnal, they feed only atnight, they don't have eyes, so
they only come, feed on the peakand then drop off and hide in
(07:53):
cracks and crevices.
So it's wanting to look forthose ticks Because,
interestingly, there was a timewe checked for antibodies to
tick, salivary antigens And someof the ticks had those
antibodies.
So which means those peaks wereexposed to tick bites, although
not all of them had ASF, some,a few, maybe two, three which
suggests that possibly the tickis around, but the role it plays
(08:15):
in terms of transmission, thatis yet to be established, but we
can't rule that out.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Very interesting.
So with African swine fever yousaid there's no treatment, so
the animals have to be probablydestroyed.
I assume that in Nigeria youhave wild boars are correct And
they're probably persistent toor not as susceptible as the
domestic pigs.
is that correct?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
We don't have wild boars.
The wild boars are usuallyEurope.
What we have are what hawks,what hawks, bush pigs And even
those ones you know, people inNigeria hunt a lot, so the
population of those ones are notmuch in terms of, maybe,
interaction between, let's say,the wild and human interface.
It's not so much there.
(09:03):
What we're thinking isresponsible for the transmission
.
Maybe periodic outbreaks is as aresult of human activities, but
in terms of what hawks, bushpigs, red river hawks is not
well established because there'sno much contact with those ones
.
Usually you find them deep intothe forest, deep into the
wildlife reserve parks, so theyusually don't have them coming
(09:26):
close to human habitation.
And I think there was a timepeople went in there to sample
those ones and none has beentested positive.
So we wouldn't want to say thatthey have a role for say, but
what we think is that if fromthe domestic it gets into the
wild, it also supports theSylvatic circle.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
One last question I had for you, maybe to wrap up
that topic.
Can you tell us about the pigindustry in Nigeria?
What is it compared to cattle,to chickens, and where and what
parts of the country are themain producers?
Speaker 4 (10:01):
The pig population is not like the cattle.
I think we have about seven,eight million pigs in the
country in terms of populationAnd it's not evenly distributed
really.
You have more large-scalefarmers in the southern part of
the country and then up northyou have small-scale farmers,
those who keep in small numbersfive to ten, maybe at most 50.
(10:24):
And those ones are usuallyrural farmers who keep them in
small numbers because it servesas a source of income When they
are in need of money.
they need to pay school fees,they need to take their children
to hospital.
they sell one, get quick moneyand then solve one or two
problems.
So the population here is notas high as down south, because
(10:46):
in the south you have peoplekeeping up to a thousand, two
thousand pigs.
Yeah, a single individual canhave that number of pigs in his
farm.
It's a growing industry and Ithink a lot of people now have
turned to eating pork and wealso have a lot of Chinese who
are coming in, so Chinese alsopatronize a lot of the pig
industry.
So it's a growing industrybecause the pig is considered as
(11:08):
a very good bio-converter,because it converts any waste
material.
So people don't really put inmuch but you get something at
the end of the day.
So I would say it's a growingindustry.
But again up north we have thepig market.
here The pig markets are in thenorth.
We collect pigs fromindividuals from different
locations into the centralmarket and they are being
(11:31):
purchased and taken down southwhere most of the consumers are.
So at the end of the day, whenyou have those ones are infected
and they're taken to the marketand then some of them are sold.
some are not sold.
the ones that are not sold aretaken back but they already be
mixed with infected ones.
So you take an infection backto your farm and then the ones
that are taken down south, ifthey are being infected or have
(11:54):
come in contact with infectedpigs, they are also taken.
So the pig market also servesas a mixing point for healthy
and infected, and then healthyones become infected Or they
become carriers.
so you end up contaminating theenvironment and other pigs also
come down Very interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Thank you, yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Don't let the name West Nile Virus trick you.
Outbreaks of this virus happenall across the United States and
even in Texas.
According to the CDC, therewere almost 2,700 cases in the
United States and 77 cases inTexas in 2021.
It's transmitted throughmosquitoes, which means wear
(12:36):
your insect repellent during thesummer fall months.
One in five people developsymptoms such as fevers, rash
and headaches, but some peoplecan develop serious symptoms
such as convulsions, vision lossand paralysis.
Seven Texans died last year tothe West Nile Virus.
There are no vaccines or cures,so prevention is our best
(12:58):
solution, and now you know aboutthe West Nile Virus.
This has been a viral minute.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So we had the chance today to see the National
Veterinary Research Instituteand I saw that you're actually
producing 20 vaccines locally,dr Asala.
maybe you can tell us a littlebit about what it takes to
produce locally, and I'mespecially interested in the
vaccine acceptance and how doyou distribute the vaccines to
(13:26):
the end users.
Is this an easy process?
I know cost of vaccines isalways an issue.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
Yeah, for the National Veterinary Research
Institute.
Looking at our history, we willbe 100 years in two years' time
and actually how the city cameto be was as a result of
Rindapest that ravaged someparts of West Africa, the cattle
population.
So then we were under theBritish colonial rule and
(13:53):
through the initiative, we'reproducing hyperimmune sera in
order to tackle the disease.
And so After Rindapest I thinkin 2011, nigeria finally
declared free of Rindapest, sowe're Rindapest free at the
moment.
So the course of the journey,other outbreaks of other
diseases of importance came intobeing, like Newcastle,
(14:13):
brucellosis and all that.
And with that, vaccines weredeveloped with expertise and
support from also Britishgovernment.
And over the years, as timewent on, we kept on improving on
what we were doing.
From using tissue culture wecame to sell culture and
actually we're still producingusing the conventional vaccine
technology.
(14:33):
And with that, vorma's actually, or NVR has actually made a
name and we have the onlyvaccine producing institution or
establishment in Nigeria.
And for the demand, in short, weare able to meet the national
demand.
So government also, or pharmacy, rely on importation of other
foreign vaccines to be able tomeet the demand.
(14:55):
So for distribution andacceptance, in short, we're
overwhelmed by requests and likewe're always at our toes to
produce, like I was in themeeting I had to leave three
times because one call or theother one vaccine that needed to
be dispensed And for us tofacilitate distribution around
the country.
We have about 23 outstations,so we have our stations in 23
(15:17):
states out of the 36 where wehave staff via which also render
both diagnosis, also facilitatedistribution.
So we move vaccines from Vormato such places and then it can
easily be reached by farmers andalso the staff and our outfit
also render services to farmers,to farms.
That way our vaccine coverageis national and sometimes we
(15:39):
also have requests from sistercolleagues like West Africa, for
vaccines like againsttransbound diseases, like CBPP,
fmt and that.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
So Dr Luca was talking about the smaller big
holders in the north, not somuch the big markets or owners
in the in the south.
Do they have the means toafford these vaccines?
I would imagine they are thelowest cost, but still is this
for those smaller producers likedoable?
Speaker 6 (16:07):
Yeah, and for us, remember, we national institute,
so our boxes are usuallysubsidized by the government,
And then we have a lot ofgovernment interventions.
At the moment, for instance,for the rabies and the rabies
vaccine, there's a nationalcampaign and we are to produce
about 2 million doses of rabiesvaccines and it's distributed
free to all the states, and soall what the state government
(16:29):
needs to do is just to mobilizestrategies for vaccination.
So every year we have a lot ofstates coming in to mitigate and
give support to farmers byprocuring vaccines from us, and
the veterinary ministries oroutfits will now go out to get
those animals vaccinated.
And even if you look at thecost of our vaccines, they're
still relatively cheap andaffordable, because compared to
(16:53):
other foreign vaccines, maybeit's cheaper and those sizes are
usually smaller, so that it caneasily be affordable, because
we are not really for profit ifwe look at it, because we have a
lot of subversion and alsosupport yearly from government
in order to be able to producethese vaccines.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Thanks for listening to the Infectious Science
podcast.
Be sure to hit subscribe andvisit infectiousscienceorg to
join the conversation, accessthe show notes and to sign up
for our newsletter and receiveour free materials.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
If you enjoyed this new episode of Infectious
Science, please leave us areview on Apple Podcasts at
Spotify and go ahead and sharethis episode with some of your
friends.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Also, don't hesitate to ask questions and tell us
what topics you'd like us tocover for future episodes.
To get in touch, drop a line inthe comments section or send us
a message on social media.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So we'll see you next time for a new episode, and in
the meantime, stay happy stayhealthy, stay healthy, stay
interested.
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