Mr. Narendra Singh Tomar, Agriculture Minister has launched India’s first homegrown Covid 19 vaccine for animals. Anocovax is an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 delta vaccine developed by the Haryana-based Indian Council of Agriculture- National Research Centre on Equines. Indian Council of Agriculture has claimed the vaccine to be safe for dogs, leopards, lions, mice, and rabbits.

Anocovax induces immunity against the delta and the omicron variants and uses alhydrogel as an adjuvant. Tomar also launched the CAN-Cov-2 ELISA kit for detecting antibodies against the virus in canines in the virtual launch event. The kit is a sensitive and specific nucleocapsid protein-based indirect ELISA kit.

The event also marked the launch of the Surra ELISA kit, an assay for detecting Trypanosoma evansi infection in animal species along with the launch of the Equine DNA parentage testing kit. The kit is based on genomic technology to analyze the parentage of horses.