An animal rights group yesterday criticized the Council of Agriculture for continuing to use rabbits to produce swine fever vaccines — killing more than 500,000 rabbits over 18 years — when alternative, humane production methods are available.
Showing videos and photographs of rabbits locked in tiny boxes and being injected with swine fever virus, the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan said that the rabbits experience intense pain and are later killed so their organs and tissues can be harvested to make vaccines.
That is how the council has produced classical swine fever vaccines since the 1950s, and rabbits are killed with air embolism or carbon dioxide, which cause excruciating pain and suffering, society chief executive Wu Hung (朱增宏) said.
Photo courtesy of the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan
A Taiwanese company developed an alternative swine fever vaccine production method in 1996, which requires only the cultivation of animal tissues to produce vaccines without killing animals, Wu said.
Another company unveiled another swine fever vaccine in 2011 that also does not require killing animals, he said.
“Both products can replace the councils’ vaccine and are more efficient, but the council has not ceased its vaccine production using live rabbits, causing the unnecessary death of more than 500,000 rabbits between 1998 and last year, according to data gathered from the council’s Animal Health Research Institute,” he said.
Photo: Wu Hsin-tien, Taipei Times
According to the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), the use of live animals for research should be avoided where possible, but the council’s practice clearly contravenes the act, he said.
The council launched a program to eliminate swine fever in 1996, but the goal has not been achieved, suggesting the ineffectiveness of the council’s vaccine program, he said.
“Is animal testing a necessary evil when there are alternatives? Is the disease an excuse for the council to keep the vaccine industry afloat?” he asked, calling on the council to propose a timetable to phase out the use of live animals in swine fever vaccine production.
Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Quarantine Deputy Director Shih Tai-hua (施泰華) said there have been no reported swine fever cases since 2005, and the council is assessing the feasibility of stopping the vaccination program as soon as the end of this year.
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