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Published: 25 June 2024

Nature Biotechnology

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The biotech products used in developing countries to improve food production and safety are often created and manufactured abroad. Using the example of cattle tick vaccines in Uganda, we highlight the value of collaborations between low-income countries and foreign partners as a means of promoting the development of biotech products for animal agriculture that are tailored to local needs and manufactured in regional facilities.

A related concern is the relevance of new vaccines to regional tick and pathogen species and genotypes. Regional manufacturers of generic products generally lack the capacity to develop new vaccines, and although large multinational companies may have the necessary capacity, they have little incentive to develop products targeted at regional diseases 3 . Additionally, the presence of poor-quality or adulterated drugs remains a major threat to food production and safety in many African countries 2 .

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Fig. 1: Countries of origin and manufacturing for registered veterinary vaccines.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Government of Uganda, National Agricultural Research Organisation, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), and farmers for their support of this project.

Author information Authors and Affiliations

Health and Biotechnology (SaBio), Institute for Game and Wildlife Research (IREC, Spanish National Research Council, CSIC – University of Castilla-La Mancha, UCLM – Regional Government of Castile-La Mancha, JCCM), Ciudad Real, Spain

José de la Fuente, Christian Gortázar & Marinela Contreras

National Livestock Resources Research Institute (NaLIRRI), National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Kampala, Uganda

Frederick Kabi, Paul Kasaija, Swidiq Mugerwa & Justus Rutaisire

Contributions

J.F. analyzed data and prepared figures. J.F., C.G., M.C., F.K., S.M. and J.R. conceived the project and organized the consortium. All authors contributed to the content and read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to
José de la Fuente.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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de la Fuente, J., Gortázar, C., Contreras, M. et al. Increasing access to biotech products for animal agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa through partnerships.
Nat Biotechnol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02300-5

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Published: 25 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02300-5

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