The Veterinary Services Department (DVS) recently announced that it will be conducting a swine flu vaccine trial on some 10,000 pigs using four different types of vaccines in the state of Perak at a cost of about RM2 million.

Prior to this, the DVS reported that some 20 percent of the pig farms in the country were found to be positive for swine flu and the only way to prevent this swine flu virus from spreading to other animals and man was by vaccinating the animals.

This vaccine trial is said to take place very soon and a decision will be made after the trial results are analysed on whether to vaccinate all the pigs in the 700-800 odd pig-farms in the country.

The DVS director-general was quoted in the local newspapers as saying that he will recommend the government to foot the bill for this national swine flu vaccination if the vaccines were found to provide good protection against swine flu infection.

I can understand the importance of the vaccine trial and I welcome the initiative taken by the DVS to conduct this trial. However, I am little concerned on the rush to conduct this trial so soon.

Conducting field vaccine trials of this nature which are highly technical need a well thought-out comprehensive plan especially when we dealing with attenuated vaccines.

Several questions popped up after reading the announcement of the vaccine trial by the DVS. Have we worked out all the bio-safety and bio-security risk assessments related to a vaccine trial of this nature and magnitude?

Is it safe to conduct a trial of this nature at midst of a worldwide outbreak of A(H1NIH)?

Since about 10,000 pigs will be tested, tons of pig waste (feces and urine) are expected to be generated during the trial period. Do we have adequate containment facilities in place to safeguard unintentional contamination of the environment?

It should be noted that certain attenuated virus vaccines can be passed out as residues (via feces and urine) into the environment and have the potential to be transmitted to other animals and humans.

As such, I urge the authorities concerned to be extremely careful in conducting this trial. The DVS should also ensure that the interested parties like the vaccine manufacturers or their agents do not in an anyway have access to the experiment and its data.

Ideally, the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry should assist the DVS in this trial especially in ensuring the analysis of the trials are not skewed in favour of the vaccine companies or their agents

In view of the apparent risk and the other related issues with regards to vaccinating more than one million pigs in the country, it is perhaps worth exploring first the effectiveness of vaccinating humans who come in close contact with pigs.

This approach is far more easier, safer and cost-effective. In the meantime, the DVS should seriously look into merging all the small pig farms into the country into a manageable level of five to 10 large farms.

It is mind-boggling how the DVS can keep tabs on some 700 over pig farms and their related health issues when these farms are scattered all around the country.