Indonesian government to regulate AI vaccines

Recently the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture announced the regulation of Avian Influenza (AI) vaccine’s circulation. Signed by General Director of Livestock and Animal Health, the letter of the regulation was sent to the producers and importers of animal vaccines in Indonesia.

In that regulation, the government determined the master seeds of AI virus (local strain of H5N1) used for vaccine preparation (Table 1). Besides those master seeds of AI virus, the addition of other master seeds of AI virus (local strain of H5N1) could be possible as far as its protectiveness fulfils the specific criteria and proved by challenge tests. The government also has determined the AI virus isolates used for the challenge test (Table 2).

Another regulation is that the distribution of AI vaccines which are not using the master seeds of AI virus determined by the government have to be stopped. The deadline to finish the pulling process of those AI vaccines in the market is December 2011.

Table 1. The master seeds of AI virus (local strain of H5N1) used for vaccine preparation

No.	Master seed of AI virus
1.	A/Chicken/West Java/PWT-WIJ/2006
2.	A/Chicken/Pekalongan/BBVW-208/2007
3.	A/Chicken/Garut/BBVW-223/2007
4.	A/Chicken/West Java (Nagrak)/30/2007

* could be used as single or polivalen vaccine
Source: General Directorate of Livestock and Animal Health, Indonesia

Table 2. The AI virus isolates used for challenge test