India’s First COVID Vaccine For Animals Launched: ANOCOVAX Is Here

(CTN News) – The Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, launched the country’s first homegrown vaccine Anocovax for the species at an event on Thursday. Anocovax Vaccine is an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by the ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines (NRC) in Hisar, Haryana. SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron Variants are neutralized by Anocovax immunity.

Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (Delta) antigen is combined with Alhydrogel as an adjuvant in the vaccine. The product is safe for dogs, lions, leopards, mice, and rabbits.

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“The Council’s scientists’ unparalleled contributions have made the country succeed not only in essential crops’ production but, in the various fields of agricultural and allied sciences as well at the global level,” said Mr Tomar, after the virtual launch of the COVID-19 vaccine and diagnostic kits for animals developed by the ICAR-NRC. 

CAN-CoV-2 ELISA kit- for antibody detection against COVID

The ‘CAN-CoV-2 ELISA kit’, a sensitive and specific nucleocapsid protein-based indirect ELISA kit, is also available from Tomar for the detection of antibodies against COVID in canines. The preparation of the antigens does not require laboratory animals. The kit is made in India and a patent has been filed for it. Other comparable kits for the detection of antibodies in canines do not exist, according to the ICAR.

Trilochan Mohapatra, Atul Chaturvedi, and Bhupendra Nath Tripathi, ICAR Deputy Director General (Animal Science), were also present.