Departmental Spotlight for the Month - Veterinary Department
Botswana Vaccine Institute products are produced in accordance with the international standards and all final batch products must meet the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) standards.
The Veterinary Department is positioned to take responsibility in ensuring that all the vaccines produced are safe to use in target species and facilitate the Vaccine potency and efficacy.
In summary the Veterinary Department is responsible for:
- Vaccine safety test
- Vaccine potency and efficacy determination
- Production of Reference Sera
- Field Sampling and Diagnostics
- Post vaccination Monitoring
- The purpose of safety test in live animal is to verify that inactivated antigen for the specific vaccine is non- infectious and/or unduly toxic.
This is carried by Inoculation of vaccine being tested (commercial) into sensitive target species using the recommended methods used for testing abnormal toxicity. - Potency test in carried in target species, with the recommended route and dose to evaluate the quality of an inactivated antigen for a specific vaccine by the rate of neutralizing antibodies induced after primary vaccinations of adult bovines.
- Production of reference sera batches used in both complement fixation and ELISA tests through Hyperimmunization of rabbits and guinea pigs.
- The Veterinary Department is also responsible for field sampling and diagnosis of all suspected cases of FMD across its customers. The samples aid in vaccine match determination and selection of specific vaccine type for the specific antigen causing the disease.
- The Purpose of Post Vaccination monitoring is to evaluate the response of vaccinated animals to the Vaccine. This helps to determine whether the vaccine was able to elicit antibody production in the vaccinated animal.
