Cuba to have its own vaccine against rabbit hemorrhagic disease

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 16 (ACN) By the end of this year, experts expect that a Cuban vaccine against rabbit hemorrhagic disease, the main threat to the health of these animals, could be submitted for registration.

In statements to the Cuban News Agency, PhD in Sciences Mario Pablo Estrada Garcia, director of Agricultural Research of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), said that the vaccine candidate (Cunvac) is being completed at the headquarters of the scientific institution in the province of Camaguey (east of the country).

He said that in the second quarter of 2021 they will produce three batches of the drug to carry out Phase I, II and III trials, and then request the approval of the vaccine proposal to the National Center for Animal Health.

Estrada Garcia commented that Cuba currently imports a drug against the aforementioned disease for approximately 200,000 dollars a year, and those amounts only allow immunizing the genetic population of the specimens in the archipelago.

Obtaining the domestic vaccine, not only guarantees sovereignty, but also makes it possible to manufacture the necessary amount to apply it to all the rabbits in the country, and ours has shown that it provides greater protection compared to the imported one, te expert asserted.

In 2020, thousands of wild and domestic rabbits in several U.S. states and Mexico died after contracting rabbit viral hemorrhagic disease type 2, which, while not a danger to humans, kills 90 percent of rabbits, hares and some other animals.

The virus, with a three-day incubation period, causes almost no symptoms, and only reduces appetite and energy in some of those infected; however, during this period it attacks the liver cells, causing hepatitis, damages other organs, such as the heart and lungs, and causes subsequent
internal bleeding.
The CIGB also has important veterinary vaccines registered as Gavac and Porvac, directed against ticks of the genus Rhipicephalus (boophilus) microplus, and to combat classical swine fever, respectively.