Squalane is extracted from shark liver oil, which is an immune-stimulating substance and is used, among other things, as an adjuvant in some vaccines.
– For example, Novarits has an adjuvant used in flu vaccines and GSK sanofi has an adjuvant. It is GSK adjuvant, it is called ASO3 and it has then been used in the new covid vaccine that they have developed. So it is not one of the most common adjuvants and it is quite new but it is used in vaccines, it does, says Matti Sällberg, professor at Karolinska Institutet.
The exact extent to which the shark population has been affected by vaccine production is difficult to say because the shark liver oil is extracted as a by-product of shark fishing according to the World Wildlife Fund WWF.
But in the 90s, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization made an estimate, and that figure is also the one that stands now.
– To produce one ton of squalene, it takes 2,500-3,000 sharks. But then you have to remember that it’s not just the squall you fish for, says Inger Näslund, senior ocean expert at WWF.
But now American scientists have developed a possible lab-made alternative to the squall.
– The more environmentally friendly and the less we use animals where there is limited access and there is likely a certain amount of suffering, then it is absolutely excellent that we have synthetic sources for such extremely important components in vaccines, says Matti Sällberg, professor at Karolinska The institute.
In the player above: More about the vaccine with shark liver oil in it.