The unit is starting soon with the manufacture of the FMD vaccine, which it is doing to mainly supply for the government's Rs 2,000 crore control programme. The FMD toll last year amounted to a loss of $5 billion. While the demand from government alone is 200 million doses yearly, the capacity at the Bangalore unit is 60 million, but will be scaled to 200 million, said company MD, Dr S N Singh.

Exports will be considered later.

The southern states of Karnataka and TN had recently suffered from severe outbreaks of FMD, said Dr Singh who was hopeful that FMD could be eradicated with concerted efforts.

Under an attack of FMD, the epithelium tissue gets damaged, leading to thickness of tongue and gums and death occurs in 10-12 days. The young of the cattle succumb to heart collapse.

While indigenous breeds are less susceptible, cross-breeds are what get most affected.

The rural economy gets severely affected with the loss of cattle. The ultimate hope is to eradicate FMD just like rinderpest was eradicated, said Singh.

The unit is the only one of its kind in Asia and second in the world.
The safety level employed is the maximum available and addresses requirements when working on dangerous agents which pose high risk of life threatening disease, etc. The containment makes sure that personnel are protected from bio-hazard as also preventing contamination of air, water, etc. "We have ensured that all aspects of the facility are treated and decontaminated before being released," said Biovet Chairman Dr Krishna Ella.
The unit comes under the purview of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, given its safety levels. The civil construction is done to withstand quakes and is completely made of concrete without any glass panels. Two floors above and two floors below the manufacturing floor are entirely devoted to treatment of air and effluents before they are released to the environment outside, he said.

Dr Ella noted how due to FMD the country is not able to export meat and milk products. He feels that the agricultural economy was suffering because of neglect of animal livestock.

The same unit can be used for manufacture of vaccines for other high-risk disease like ebola, HIV, KFD, etc.