Ottawa, Ontario – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is has announced that the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) will work with African swine fever (ASF), further supporting Canada's preparedness strategy by increasing research capacity.
"With the spread of ASF in other parts of the world, the Government of Canada is taking a leadership role to protect our pork industry, economy and Canadians' jobs," says Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. "Supporting research towards an ASF vaccine is one of many ways that we are working to mitigate the global impact of ASF."
Synergy for success
This complements ongoing collaborations between the CFIA and VIDO-InterVac aimed at developing and testing vaccines and antivirals for ASF – a deadly and fast spreading viral disease that is killing millions of pigs worldwide and could devastate Canada's pork industry.
"Science plays an important role in the fight against ASF," says Dr. Jaspinder Komal, Chief Veterinary Officer for Canada. "Supporting VIDO-InterVac's vaccine research is a key step forward in stopping the progress of this deadly disease."