COVID-19 vaccine trials have been taken on 12 rhesus macaques, a kind of monkey of the Macaca mulatta family. (Photo: dantri.com.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - COVID-19 vaccine testing has begun on monkeys inVietnam.
TheVaccine and Biological Production Company (Vabiotech) under the Ministry ofHealth started trials on 12 rhesus macaques, a kind of monkey of the Macacamulatta family.
Thetrials took place on Reu Island off the northern province of Quang Ninh.
VuCong Long, head of the Animal Breeding Farm at the Centre for Research andProduction of Vaccines and Biologicals under the Ministry of Health, confirmedtests were carried out on October 27.
VabiotechDirector Do Tuan Dat said the monkeys are aged between three and five and weighmore than three kilograms each. They had their health checked and are notinfected with any diseases, he said.
Afterbeing vaccinated, the monkeys will be monitored for three months. Then, theirblood samples will be taken and sent to Hanoi for further analysis.
Themonkeys will be tested in two periods. In each period, they will be dividedinto two groups, with one being vaccinated and the other not vaccinated. Afterthat, they will be monitored daily on separate islands.
Thetesting will follow a similar model that may be performed on people. Theanimals will be injected with the vaccine twice, with the shots being 18-21days apart.
Amonth after the second shot, researchers will assess their immune response tosee the effects between the injected and non-injected groups.
InJune, Vabiotech tested the vaccine on mice.
Arepresentative data was collected from the mice tests and scientists willcontinue testing the vaccine on other animals.
Theresults of the testing on monkeys will be a foundation for the next stage andproposal to test the vaccine on people./.
VNA
