The role of animal serum in making of vaccines

The Central Government of India recently issued a clarification stating that Covaxin, the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, did not contain the serum of a newborn calf.

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This was in response to discussions on the social media about the presence of calf serum in Covaxin.

In the clarification, the government reiterated the well-known use of calf serum, as also serum extracted from other animals, in the development of vaccines.

These are needed to grow the disease-causing virus, bacteria or other pathogens in the laboratory, but do not themselves become an ingredient of the vaccine.

According to the website of the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, cow components are used mainly because cows are large animals, easily available, and rich in some of the useful chemicals and enzymes.

Historically, animal serum has been used in the development of vaccines in other ways as well.

The use of horse serum as an antibody supplement in diphtheria vaccine is more than 100 years old. Horses used to be injected with small doses of bacteria that caused diphtheria so that they could develop antibodies.