Sharks at risk over vaccine
2010-01-12 14:40
Cape Town - The massive production of a virus to protect humans against the swine flu virus (H1N1) is posing a direct threat to various species of deep water sharks.
According to an article posted on Tuesday by Simply Green Online, a South African website focusing on green news and information, the sharks are threatened in a grave way by the virus through the pharmaceutical process which requires squalene, a substance that can be obtained from the sharks' liver.
"Squalene is a key component in the H1N1 vaccine which is believed to have saved human lives worldwide through preventative efforts," the article says. "It can be obtained in small amounts from olive oil, wheat germ oil and rice bran oil; though deep water shark livers are the best source."
Pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline, which has been a major producer of the H1N1 vaccine, refused to indicate the quantity of squalene harvested from sharks that they have used in their vaccines, but does admit it has been a source. H1N1 vaccines containing squalene oil from the livers of sharks has only been approved to date for distribution in Canada and Europe.
Great risk
"The killing of sharks for human survival poses a great risk to the deep water sharks. Species like the gulper shark (considered the best source of squalene) is already listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species since it is nearing extinction," said author of the article, Beth Graddon-Hodgson.
"These killings for squalene put these sharks at a greater risk since deep water species have low reproductive rates that further compromise their survival."
Another article on squalene explains that it is added to a vaccine as an "adjuvant" to enhance the immune response to the vaccination. Adjuvants cause the immune system to overreact to get the job done faster, which reduces the amount of vaccine required per dose, and the number of doses given per individual.
Less vaccine required per person means more individual doses are available for mass vaccination campaigns.