Foot-and-mouth vaccine donated to Cambodia

China donated 100,000 doses of animal vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease to Cambodia on Tuesday to help prevent it spreading to other countries, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' Foreign Economic Cooperation Center said.

The doses were transported by air on Tuesday afternoon from Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport in Northwest China's Gansu province to Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia's capital.

The bovine vaccine was developed by China Agricultural Vet Biology and Technology, a company based in Lanzhou, which started production on March 1. The safety and efficacy of the vaccine has been tested by Chinese authorities, according to the ministry's Department of International Cooperation which organized the donation activities.

The batch is part of an animal vaccine donation program initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in December.

Two Chinese biotech companies, Jinyu Bio-Technology and China Agricultural Vet Biology and Technology, pledged a total of 200,000 doses of cattle vaccines worth 2 million yuan ($308,000) to Cambodian authorities under the program.

In January, the first batch of 100,000 doses for hemorrhagic septicemia, an acute and highly fatal disease of cattle, was shipped to Cambodia from Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, marking China's first donation of animal vaccines to Cambodia.

He Cheng, a professor at China Agricultural University's College of Veterinary Medicine, said the donations will help Cambodia to improve its response to animal disease risks and prevent such diseases spreading internationally.

"The donations will be beneficial to its cattle industry and the export of animal products," He said, adding that they will also facilitate registration and production in Cambodia by Chinese vaccine companies.

"The foot-and-mouth vaccine China produced has the best quality and the biggest capacity, and countries in the Middle East and Africa and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are willing to buy vaccines made in China," He said.

He added that China is considering selling 6.9 million doses of foot-and-mouth vaccine to Cambodia at preferential prices.

Chinese animal disease control experts plan to visit Cambodia and hold training sessions to share experiences in animal disease prevention and seek more cooperation when the COVID-19 pandemic there is under control, He said.

Ma Jingna and Fu Shufang in Lanzhou contributed to this story.