Manufacturer and researchers looking for approval for Japanese encephalitis vaccine

Managing director of Apiam Animal Health, Dr Chris Richards, said there had been a working relationship with La Trobe University researchers to get the vaccine ready for market.

The vaccine will be planned to be manufactured at the company's ACE Laboratories, located in Bendigo.

Dr Richards work with researchers on the development of the vaccine began a few months after the virus was identified in March last year.

"Nearly 60 farms have been affected at various stages, and over the following few months after March, we have got more of a picture of it and identified that it was different to other Japanese encephalitis viruses in other countries," he said.

He said after the development of the vaccine, Apiam was at the final step of seeking approval from the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA).

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"We have been working quite closely with the APVMA, and have got a lot of support industry, and some of the state veterinary offices," he said.

"This is an emergency situation for the industry, and it's been quite devastating for farmers, and they have been helping us to identify the quickest way to bring this vaccine to market."

"For us, it's been an initiative to try and help out our clients as quickly as we can, knowing that we've got the ability to make a vaccine here and here in Bendigo and being able to get that into the pig industry as fast as possible is a priority."

Northern Victorian farmer David Wright said many pig farmers had fought the virus by trying to reduce mosquito levels and implementing control plans.

He said he had also "gone pretty hard" on his farm, implementing many controls to prevent JEV spread.

"We've sprayed externally around the outsides of our sheds, and consulted with people around chemicals and what to use, what not to use," he said.

"We're spraying grasses; we're using a backline that's registered for the pigs that help deter the mosquitoes; we're putting misting systems in our shed at a fairly high cost that pump out natural pyrethrin to get that smell to keep the mosquito out of a night time.

"As silly as it sounds, we've even been burning the mozzie coils and go every night at nine o'clock into the back of the farm and light about a dozen of those at every shed to try and keep the mosquitoes out."

Mr Wright said pig farmers have been looking after each other and are proactive when looking after their pigs.

But financially, the cost of protecting animals has been immense, and approval for a JEV vaccine can't come soon enough.

But he also emphasised that the approval of a vaccine is a community welfare issue, as much as it's an issue over pig health.

"Don't get me wrong, we do want this process done properly, but we would like the government to expedite it because the need is not just on our farms, it's within our communities as well."

"We've seen with the experience of COVID that we can do these things, and we just would like the government to step up."