Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI)

The Botswana Vaccine Institute (B.V.I.), located in Gaborone, Botswana, is at the present time producing foot and mouth disease vaccines, for use in various african countries. A pilot unit used at the first stage of the development of the institute will be converted to a rabies vaccine production laboratory. All facilities are available to ensure maximum security and are described. The vaccine will be produced according to the Mérieux technology (virus grown on cell culture, inactivated by betapropiolactone) and tested according to the technique recommended by the National Institute of Health (N.I.H.) USA. Potency tests in either carnivores (dogs—cats) or ruminants (cattle—sheep) will be carried out at B.V.I. (which has the proper high security facilities to enable work with live virus challenges in animals). This vaccine has already been widely used with success by several african countries especially in the southern african region. Lastly the cold-chain, of utmost importance in tropical countries set up by the B.V.I. is described which ensures complete efficiency of the vaccine, from the beginning of production until use by the customer.