Animal-free media are already commercially available and can be used to grow Vero cells for virus production instead of using NBCS extracted by slaughtering calves.
IANS: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India… has requested the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to replace Newborn Calf Serum (NBCS), [also known as Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)], with animal-free chemical solution, in the production of the Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin. PETA wrote a letter on Thursday morning to DCGI’s Dr V.G. Somani, to direct vaccine manufacturers, to consider its proposal following report that Covaxin, India’s indigenous Covid-19 vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), uses NBCS during the production stage, which is extracted from the blood of slaughtered calves under 20 days old… [Editor: Companies that make vaccines and other medicines are required by law to carry out certain tests which involve using animals – before they can market their products]….
“The calves used in the extraction of this serum are taken away from their mothers shortly after birth, which traumatises and distresses both the mother and calf,” says PETA India Science Policy Adviser Dr Ankita Pandey. “PETA India looks to the Drugs Controller to ensure that vaccine manufacturers switch to available animal-free media that overcome the limitations associated with the use of animal-derived serum”… “Animal-free media are already commercially available and can be used to grow Vero cells for virus production instead of using NBCS extracted by slaughtering calves,” PETA India said in the letter.
The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughterhouse) Rules, 2001, prohibits the slaughter of pregnant animals and animals under 3 months of age – therefore, the use of serum obtained by slaughtering a calf younger than 20 days of age for vaccine production should also not be allowed… PETA India argues that modernising methods of vaccine production is an immediate necessity — particularly in a country like India, whose public has religious, cultural, and emotional connections with cows and calves and where harming them is a punishable offence…
PETA India’s request comes a day after the Central government released a clarification that Covaxin does not contain newborn calf serum at all. Noting that “facts have been twisted and misrepresented”, the government said: “Newborn Calf Serum is used only for preparation or growth of vero cells.” Noting that different kinds of bovine and other animal serum are standard enrichment ingredient, and they are used globally for vero cell growth, the Union Health Ministry said vero cells are used to establish cell lives which help in production of vaccines… SOURCE…
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