Guwahati: The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated India’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccination for animals at a virtual event on Thursday.
The immunity conferred by the Ancovax Vaccine developed by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research’s National Research Centre on Equines in Haryana’s Hisar which neutralises both the Delta and Omicron Variants of SARS-CoV-2.
According to the ICAR, this new vaccine comprises inactivated SARS-CoV-2 or Delta antigen with Alhydrogel as an adjuvant, and it is safe for dogs, lions, leopards, mice, and rabbits.
It should be noted that, while the COVID-19 virus is primarily transmitted between individuals by respiratory droplets and close contact there have been instances of transmission between humans and animals.
COVID-19 has been found in several animals that have come into contact with infected humans, including minks, dogs, domestic cats, lions, and tigers.
As a result, this locally created vaccine has provided a significant boost in the fight against COVID-19.
In addition to Anocovac, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, unveiled the ‘CAN-CoV-2 ELISA kit,’ a sensitive and specific nucleocapsid protein-based indirect ELISA kit for antibody detection against SARS-CoV-2 in canines.
ICAR Director General Trilochan Mohapatra, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Secretary Atul Chaturvedi, and ICAR Deputy Director General (Animal Science) Bhupendra Nath Tripathi were among those who attended the virtual event.