imugene solutution the right choice, page-2

November 29, 2005

Study backs bird vaccination
By Mark Henderson



LARGE-SCALE vaccination of poultry is a viable way of preventing the spread of avian flu, a study has found.
Research in the Netherlands has shown that vaccines against highly pathogenic strains of influenza can protect chickens against illness and death brought on by infection, as well as preventing further transmission of the virus.



Though the findings, from a team at the Central Institute for Animal Disease Control and Wageningen University, relate to the H7 strain of flu and not the H5N1 type currently causing global concern, they support the idea that vaccination is a practical weapon against avian influenza.

While vaccination is known to be an effective way of protecting poultry against the worst effects of avian flu, its usefulness in preventing epidemics has been widely questioned because it does not always stop vaccinated birds from passing on the virus. This means that widespread immunisation could actually make it harder to contain an epidemic, as birds that show no of few symptoms of infection would still pass the disease on to others.