The Gachibowli facility of Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) will counter the deadly ‘bluetongue’ disease that affects lakhs of sheep, goats and cattle countrywide. On Thursday, the ‘Raksha Blu” vaccine was launched with an aim to minimise the economic loss of the animal farming community due the disease. The vaccine is a result of the collaborations between IIL, TANUVAS (Tamil Nadu University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences) and ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) that stretched over a period of three years. Priced at Rs. 5 for the farmers, the vaccine has been developed to protect the animals against five strains of the ‘bluetongue’ virus prevalent in the country.
Speaking at the launch, K.V. Balasubramaniam, Managing Director, IIL said that country tops in the animal diseases and it was important to involve rural community in the various initiatives to improve the situation. The chief guest of the event and Additional Director General of ICAR, Gaya Prasad, said that the vaccine was very important in the Indian context because the country has a population of 70 million sheep.
