History of NVI

History of NVI

National Veterinary Institute (NVI) was established at Bishoftu /Debrezeit in 1964 with 40 persons under the Ministry of Agriculture, getting technical assistance from the French Government through the French Veterinary Mission in Ethiopia. At that time, the real value of the NVI for the welfare of the national animal resources and for the African continent is not well known by most of the people. Today it is one of the most well known veterinary vaccine producing institutions in Africa with its multidisciplinary professional staff having long years of experience.

The infrastructure of NVI is well developed and playing an important role in the attraction of international institution, the Pan African Veterinary Vaccine Control Center (PANVAC) which is under the African Union. Moreover, it has been given the responsibility to produce and supply enough vaccines for PTA (Preferential Trade Area) countries of Eastern, Western and Southern Africa. The institute has reached the level of using state of the art equipment’s and technologies for biological production and vaccine related research.

Since the creation of the institute, several million doses of different vaccines have been produced and dispatched to protect millions of animals from various infectious diseases. According to the evaluation performed in 1983 by IEMVT (Institute D’Elvage et de Medicine Veterinaire de pays Tropicaux) on the production potential of African laboratories, NVI was graded as the biggest vaccine producing center of all veterinary laboratories in tropical Africa.

Moreover the institute won the International Gold Mercury Award in 1982 in recognition of its positive contribution to national development at the 22nd conference for peace and cooperation.

Gold Medal award from the Ministry of Science Technology.

Different medals and certificate award from the Government and non Government Organizations, Professional Associations and Universities.

The National Veterinary Institute was organized as public enterprise by the Proclamation No. 25/1992 and Council of Ministers Regulations No. 52/1999.

The institute is:

  1. certified with ISO/QMS  9001 : 2015  by an international accrediting company ALCUMUS/ISOQAR and it is dedicated for Development ,Manufacture , Sales and Distribution  of veterinary vaccines as its primary mandate.
  2. certified ISO/IEC 17025:2017 In Research and Development Laboratory for the following tests

3ABC ELISA for FMD

C-ELISA For CBPP & CCPP

RBPT FOR BRUCELLOSIS and

ELISA for PPR

by:- Ethiopian National Accreditation Office /ENAO/

The institute possesses more than 57 years of experience in the production and distribution of veterinary biological products for both domestic and international markets (to more than 26 African countries). The vaccine production capacity of the institute in the early years was about 4 million doses per year, but currently it has a capacity of producing more than 300,000,000 doses. The institute has total surface area of 40 hectare of land. NVI actively takes part in problem identification, and look for solution by developing and promoting research products to alleviate livestock diseases related problem and at the same time to protect animal welfare and the environment.

Ordinarily the institute works harmoniously with the national veterinary service delivering institutions being as a stakeholder of the discipline. The institute has been working in collaboration with the national and international institutes on vaccine development and improvement, vaccine production, pathogen identification and characterization, and other related technology transfer activities.