This was stated by Oksana Yurchenko, president of the Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders, during a panel discussion entitled ‘The Export Chain: From Producer to Consumer’ at the New Grain 2025 agricultural innovation forum.
According to her, currently, there is only data from the vaccine developer itself — the Vietnamese company AVAC, which claims that the vaccine has been tested on 500,000 pigs in Vietnam. However, domestic experts doubt the objectivity and scale of such studies.
"Vietnam is structurally composed of provinces, each of which has its own autonomous budget. Since they keep a large number of pigs in households, each province has the right to use its budget to purchase vaccines and distribute them to people. Therefore, the figures given for vaccine trials are actually far from being so large-scale," Yurchenko explained.
In addition, she stressed that Ukraine is currently on the path to joining the EU, where the use of this vaccine is not even being considered yet. Therefore, registering the drug in our country would contradict the strategic course towards European integration and the requirements for the safety and scientific evidence of veterinary products.
She also stressed that the use of a live vaccine without clear instructions, international experience and proper risk assessment could pose a threat to both animal health and the country's commercial reputation.
"As an association, we are against registering this vaccine and importing it into Ukraine. At this stage, it is not a matter of business choice, but a matter of national choice. Because the vaccine is live, and if you start using it, first of all, there are no normal guidelines on how to do it, there is no experience in terms of global trade. Therefore, I believe that until, say, someone other than Vietnam, that is, institutions that have authority at the global level, confirm that it is safe and can be used, I think Ukraine will continue to adhere to that position and wait for confirmatory results, rather than being a testing ground," Yurchenko concluded.
Thus, the industry calls on the state to exercise caution and make balanced decisions on issues of strategic importance for the country's biosafety and the future of Ukrainian pig farming.
PigUA.info based on materials from agroportal.ua