In India, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) research started in the then Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory at Mukteswar as early as in 1929. The work on the production of vaccines using cell culture technique commenced at Mukteswar in early sixties initially in goat kidney/calf kidney cell cultures and subsequently by 1971-72 with the availability of the BHK 21 cell line in monolayer cultures. With the increased demand for the FMD vaccines, the Bangalore campus of IVRI was established in 1972 with the objective of large scale production in fermenters. This plant became fully operational by 1980 and the production.
