New Delhi: Vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease and Brucella abortus have been chosen to become part of the country’s first list of essential medicines for animals, ThePrint has learnt.
Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious viral disease of livestock, while Brucella abortus is a bacterial disease found among animals, which can be transmitted to humans, mostly through milk products.
The National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) was notified in 2015 and implemented in 2016 for drugs sold in India for human use. The list includes all the drugs that fall directly under the government’s price regulation mechanism.
However, last year, the central government had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Dr R.K. Singh, director, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, to prepare a list of essential medicines for animal use.
“The committee had submitted its report and after examination of the report, the ministry of health’s drug regulator section has accepted the overall recommendations…,” a senior official from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told ThePrint.
A notification issued by the government on 18 November stated: “The Government of India has further decided that the list will be operational with immediate effect.”
The government is also considering adding other animal vaccines under the NLEM.
The committee, in its recommendations submitted to the government, mentioned that “NLEM is a dynamic document and there is scope to explore the possibility to include other veterinary vaccines like camel pox vaccine, sheep pox vaccine, PPR vaccine (given for the highly contagious Goat Plague), goat pox vaccine, Orf vaccine, buffalo pox vaccine, and poultry vaccines, etc., in the NLEM at the appropriate stage based on the deliberations and inputs of disease prevalence and objective evidences”.
Also read: 8 Covid vaccines that look most likely to lead us out of pandemic — and where they stand
Why NLEM for animals is important
The outbreaks of disease among animals have major social and financial impacts, according to the committee’s recommendations, seen by ThePrint.
“Animal diseases are not only dangerous to the Indian economy, but also equally important in respect to human health,” the recommendations state.
“During recent years, the majority of the infectious emerging diseases affecting the human have originated from animals. Thus, it is logical to safeguard animal health, which is important for sustaining human health,” the committee further said.
The committee — which held its first meeting on 14 February — deliberated on the issue concerning NLEM for veterinary use, considering the prevalence of disease in the animal sector and to adopt a mechanism by which veterinary drugs, including vaccines, can be made available to the stakeholders and veterinary healthcare providers at an affordable cost.
“The livestock sector has immense potential for growth in India. The animal husbandry department is a major contributor to the Indian economy and overall contribution is 28-32 per cent in agricultural GDP and 4-6 per cent of the national GDP,” the panel said.
Panel’s recommendations
The committee deliberated around the efficacy, safety, comparative cost-effectiveness, and the prevalence of disease among animals as major criteria for drafting the NLEM for veterinary use.
“… the meaning and list of essential medicines for animal use is not published by the national and international agencies,” the panel highlighted.
However, in the Indian context, it said: “The essential medicine may be defined as under: Essential medicines for veterinary use are the medicines, which address the majority of animal or livestock health needs of the country based on the disease prevalence and objective evidence.”
“The essentiality of such medicines is generally based on safety, efficacy, and affordability in the context of the access of these medicines for veterinary use in the country.”
The committee also discussed antibiotics in food supplements, poultry, aquaculture and livestock, etc., that leads to antimicrobial resistance issues.
Also read: This is why blood from newborn cattle is being used to develop Indian Covid vaccine