very appropriate technology for mass vaccination

Prideaux said an effective vaccine was needed to provide a viable alternative to the mass culls in Asia earlier this year.

“There is a need in Asia to have a means of controlling avian influenza,” he told AFP. “It is a major problem for their industries and, therefore, if we can help countries like that in controlling the disease then there are advantages for those countries.”

Prideaux said the vaccine would be affordable for poorer countries.

“The virus is very simple and easy to grow and it can be delivered en masse—it can be sprayed on chickens or put in drinking water,” he said. “So it’s really a very appropriate technology for mass vaccination at a very cheap level.”

Prideaux said he was confident the genetically modified virus would not enter the food chain through chickens.

“The virus can’t replicate in humans so there is no chance of the virus replicating in nonin­tended species,” he said.

Although the vaccine was being developed for the H5N1 virus, it could be modified for other strains of bird flu.

The CSIRO hoped to know by the end of the year whether the vaccine would work.

The organization is also working on a vaccine to prevent humans contracting the disease.