February 7, 2005

Chinese scientists develop bird flu vaccine

Scientists in China have developed a bird flu vaccine for poultry and mammals that can fend off the deadly virus and help stop its spread, the China Daily reported Monday.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 45 people in Asia in the last year, including 13 in Vietnam in the past month, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has urged "all possible measures" to prevent the emergence of the disease in China.

No outbreaks have been reported in China so far this year, but the country is not taking any chances as many rural areas are ill-equipped to handle a possible outbreak.

The Health Ministry said the new vaccine could "cut a key link in the transmission chain", the paper reported.

Using a technique called reverse genetics, researchers at the Key Laboratory of Animal Influenza, affiliated with the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, altered the genome sequence of the virus to create the vaccine, the newspaper said.

"Laboratory tests show the vaccine enables ducks and geese to fight H5N1, the highly lethal strain of bird flu, three weeks after the flocks were vaccinated," it said, quoting a Health Ministry statement.

"The new vaccine also provides at least 10 months of protection for chickens -- four months longer than the existing bird flu preventive drugs."

Field tests showed that two shots of the vaccine are all that's needed for ducks and geese to produce antibodies effective for 10 months and three months, respectively, it said.

Most bird flu victims have caught the virus from infected poultry, but experts fear it could mutate into a form that could easily pass between humans, unleashing a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.