Govt Allowed Sale of Faulty FMD Vaccine in Paraguay
PARAGUAY - One possible cause of two outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in San Pedro could be due to the government changing the results of the quality control on a batch of FMD vaccine which did not meet the required stsandards, says Mary Eugenia Acosta, of Galmedic.
30 January 2012
1 minute read
ABC
reports that the vaccines of the "Aftogen" 617 series, which originated in Argentina, had given unsatisfactory results in the physical-chemical control practiced on 24 September 2009, but were later approved by SENACSA as "satisfactory".
According to the explanation of Mary Eugenia Acosta, of Galmedic Laboratory, analysis of the vaccine's resistance showed that the vaccine suffered broken emulsion after 15 hours of being placed at 56 degrees, which not meet the minimum condition required.
She noted that this could be one of the causes that led to the two outbreaks of FMD in San Pedro, despite achieving high vaccination coverage.
She explained that all primary emulsion vaccine should remain stable for at least five days at 56 degrees, while the aforementioned endured just 15 hours.
This irregularity, reported by Ms Acosta, was released to the press five months later on the 2 February, 2010, coinciding with the seizure and destruction order a batch of 1,500,000 doses of FMD vaccines.
According to Ms Acosta, Officer Rojas allowed the sale and use of the faulty vaccines despite knowing that they were not meeting all the requirements.
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