US Develops Bird Flu Vaccine, But Not For Immediate Distribution

By Kaustav · Mar 25th, 2015

United States’ government is developing the bird flu vaccine, to keep off their poultry from the avian flu virus, but there is no plan for distributing them immediately, a Reuters report stated on March 23.

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The new strains of avian flu virus have caused widespread deaths of birds from Arkansas to the state of Washington in recent times. The U.S. government has informed that the avian flu virus is being spread by certain wild birds and hence they are developing the bird flu vaccine. Within the next two months, this vaccine will be available for trials on chicken to observe its efficiency, mentioned scientists from a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research lab in Georgia known as the U.S. Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory.
Since December, the new strains of the avian flu virus, H5N8 and H5N2, have spread infections to the backyard flocks and commercial poultry in eight of the states. The development of the bird flu vaccine didn’t initiate until the infection became widespread. And such an outbreak has reduced the U.S. poultry imports from its major buyers overseas. Hence, some of the largest poultry producers in the world, like Sanderson Farms Inc and Tyson Foods Inc, have raised their farms’ biosecurity levels.

Distribution of the bird flu vaccine

The bird flu vaccine is developed as a back-up plan, should a situation arise to call for one. As of now U.S. will keep culling their flocks which are infected in order to stop the transmission of the virus. Distribution plans for the bird flu vaccine are kept on hold for the moment, as mentioned some officials on March 23. If in case the containment strategy requires a countermeasure, the vaccine will be put to use, stated T.J. Myers, associate deputy director of surveillance, preparedness, and response services for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the USDA. Whether the vaccine should be released or not will depend on the agency’s decision.
“There’s really no way to protect where the next case might be,” stated Myers, as the new strains were found in wild birds. It is impractical and unnecessary to vaccinate the poultry of the entire country, he further added. The vaccine can be used when the infection “gets to the point where we cannot contain it,” commented Mark Jackwood, head of the University of Georgia’s Department of Population Health.
There is already an existing bird flu vaccine, but that is not effective, hence the U.S. Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory is developing the new bird flu vaccine, mentioned Director David Swayne. But human beings are not at a risk from this avian flu virus.
Photo: NIAID