IIT Guwahati develops India’s first recombinant swine fever vaccine

BioMed Pvt. Ltd., a renowned vaccine manufacturer, has acquired an innovative vaccine technology from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. This technology introduces a recombinant vector vaccine, a first of its kind, aimed at tackling the classical swine fever virus in pigs and wild boars. This development addresses a significant void in India’s vaccine sector.

The vaccine, a novel recombinant virus-based solution for pigs, leverages a reverse genetic platform developed and perfected at IIT Guwahati. Classical swine fever, a highly infectious pig disease with a high fatality rate, does not impact humans. However, it has been frequently reported in several Indian states, including the northeastern states, Bihar, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, and Gujarat.

The development of this vaccine began in 2018-2019, a joint venture between researchers from IIT Guwahati’s Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering and Assam Agricultural University in Guwahati. Their research outcomes have been documented in two papers published in the Process Biochemistry and Archives of Virology journals.

This vaccine, being developed and manufactured in India for the first time, is a significant milestone. The disease poses a substantial risk to India’s pig industry, and currently, no vaccine is available. The transfer of this vaccine technology to a leading player in the veterinary vaccine industry is a noteworthy accomplishment.

Reverse genetics, a powerful technique for developing vaccines for both animal and human diseases, has been extensively used to create influenza vaccines. In a unique approach, the researchers employed the Newcastle disease virus (NDV), typically studied for its pathogenicity in chickens, as a carrier for the essential proteins of the classical swine fever virus. This innovative technique aids in immunity development and is known for its speed and cost-effectiveness.

The vaccine is currently undergoing the process of obtaining a test and analysis license. This progress is vital in controlling the spread of this incurable disease among pigs in India, especially in the northeast, where cases have been prevalent in recent years.

IIT Guwahati

IIT Guwahati has consistently ranked 7th among the country’s top engineering institutions and 9th in both ‘Overall’ and ‘Research’ Categories in the ‘India Rankings 2023’ by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union Ministry of Education.

The institute comprises eleven departments, nine interdisciplinary academic centres, and five schools that offer a wide range of disciplines, including engineering, science, healthcare, management, and humanities. The institute provides a residential campus for 439 faculty members and over 8,600 students.

Globally, IIT Guwahati ranked 6th in the SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy) in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2023. It is the only Indian academic institution to be listed among the top 100 world universities under 50 years of age by London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in 2014.

IIT Guwahati is also actively working on enhancing critical science research initiatives in Genomics, Developmental Biology, Health Care, Bioinformatics, and Flexible Electronics, among other areas.

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