Govt to import Chinese vaccine

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.