In a significant breakthrough for Bangladesh's duck farming sector, researchers at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) have achieved encouraging results in developing a low-cost vaccine against duck plague. Utilizing a locally isolated duck plague virus, the vaccine promises more than 90 percent protection against the highly fatal disease, which has mortality rates ranging from 40 to 100 percent.
The findings were unveiled at the concluding workshop of the research project held at the Microbiology Gallery of the university. The project, funded by the Livestock and Dairy Development Project (LDDP), aimed to develop an attenuated vaccine. However, following a request from the Department of Livestock Services (DLS), the team also explored inactivated and DNA vaccines.
Principal Investigator Professor Dr. Md. Bahanur Rahman presented the project's progress, highlighting that while the inactivated vaccine did not yield the desired results, both the DNA and oral vaccines demonstrated promising outcomes. The vaccine is now awaiting field trials, with expectations that it could reach duck farmers within the next one to one-and-a-half years if all regulatory procedures are successfully completed.
Prof. Rahman expressed optimism about the vaccine's potential, stating, 'Through the DLS, this vaccine will make a significant contribution to Bangladesh's duck farming sector.' The workshop was attended by several distinguished guests, including Prof Dr. Md. Samsul Alam, Coordinator of the University Committee for Advanced Studies and Research (CASR), who emphasized the importance of vaccination as the most effective preventive measure against duck plague.
Prof Dr. Samsul Alam also noted BAU's Department of Microbiology and Hygiene's long-standing tradition of vaccine research and expressed hope that the vaccine's effectiveness could be further improved in the future by addressing the evolving characteristics of the virus.
