Govt to import Chinese vaccine

Rendi A. Witular and Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih asserted that the government would continue to import bird flu vaccine from China despite rising criticism from veterinarians and virologists who question the quality of the vaccine.

Bungaran claimed that vaccine from China was fairly good, safe and cheap, therefore there was no reason for the government to reject it, unless there is an official research later on that reveals a deficiency in the vaccine.

"It is unfair if we reject their vaccine without adequate evidence," Bungaran told reporters after a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission III on agricultural affairs on Monday.

He explained that the initiative to import vaccine from China was from state-owned pharmaceutical firm PT Bio Farma, which had recently been granted a license to import bird flu vaccine.

The ministry would revoke the company's import license if there were complaints from poultry farmers or official research that showed the vaccine was below standard, he said.

Bio Farma was given the license by the ministry to import the vaccine until June because of the limited capacity of local firms to produce the vaccine.

As previously reported, veterinary researchers have warned that as the Chinese-made vaccine was not yet certified by international agencies, its efficacy remained unproven. Worse, the vaccines could bring in new diseases rather than help contain the current bird flu outbreak.

A veterinary researcher and virologist at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Marten Malole, said that vaccine for bird flu of the H5N1 strain must be guaranteed free of any contamination, and that the Ministry of Agriculture should work strictly for that, or else the vaccine would mutate into a new type of virus.

"Vaccine producers from China are not accredited with the International Animal Health Organization, or OIE. We are very concerned about this," said Martin.

There have been rumors that the government had approved the import of the vaccine from China following lobbying by certain well-connected multinational poultry companies who also own pharmaceutical companies in China.

However, Bungaran dismissed the rumors and lambasted reporters who tried to confirm them, saying that the press was trying to put pressure on the ministry by running stories attacking government policies in containing the bird flu outbreak.

"There is no pressure from businessmen, it is from the press. We did not force Bio Farma to import the Chinese vaccine. It is up to them ... I am not colluding with businessmen in order to pave the way for the vaccine to enter the country," he said.

Bungaran also said that the bird flu outbreak in the country only impacted 5 percent of the total layer population. Thus, there was no need for the government to bail out the poultry industry.

Since the start of the bird flu outbreak the government has taken the issue lightly. It refused, for example, to conduct a mass cull until it was pressured by the international community.

The government was also suspected of trying to cover up the extent of the spread of the disease due to pressure from well- connected poultry businessmen. The H5N1 virus had been confirmed twice by local researchers in September and December, but the government only acknowledged that bird flu was prevalent here on Feb. 3.