csiro helping the building of imu Work on a vaccine is already...

csiro helping the building of imu Work on a vaccine is already underway, and the CSIRO Animal Health Laboratories in Geelong hopes it will be able to deliver a trial vaccine within months.

Doctor Chris Prideaux is one of the scientists working on the vaccine. He says it's a challenge.

CHRIS PRIDEAUX: Because it’s evolved a system of avoiding the immune system. So every time we come up with a new vaccine the flu virus evolves to avoid the immune system, and therefore we have to develop a new vaccine or a new siratype (phonetic) type of the vaccine to offer protection.



CHRIS PRIDEAUX: This flu is unusually virulent, it's killing a lot of chickens, so it's attracted people's attention because of its virulence. It's a new siratype (phonetic) compared to what we've seen normally in large outbreaks so this siratype (phonetic) has appeared once before.

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: Why is the vaccine so important? Is the bird industry of such sort of economic importance, I guess, that it needs to be developed?

CHRIS PRIDEAUX: Yeah, there's two issues here.

Firstly is the potential to jump from chickens to humans, and of course we need to do everything we can to ensure that every chance of that is minimised.

But secondly, yeah, the poultry industry is a major source of economic support for the areas of the world that have been hit by this industry. Poultry not only provides food for these people, but it's also their mechanism to attract an income that they use to live and maintain their lifestyles. So it's hitting these areas of the world that can probably least afford to have their incomes reduced.