The story so far: As COVID-19 cases rise across India, the Centre launched the nation’s first animal vaccine — Ancovax — against SARS-CoV-2 virus on June 9.
Ancovax — a COVID-19 vaccine for animals like dogs, lions, leopards, mice and rabbits — contains an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (Delta) antigen capable of neutralizing both Delta and Omicron variants. Developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Research Centre on Equines (ICAR-NRCE), this vaccine is one of the six vaccines indigenously produced by the Indian institute.
Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar presided over the launch event at ICAR’s Centre at Hisar, Haryana. Apart from Ancovax, Tomar also launched the CAN-CoV-2 ELISA Kit (detects COVID in canines), the Surra ELISA Kit (detects Trypanosoma evansi infection in animals) and the Equine DNA Parentage Testing Kit (determining parentage in horses and other equines).
