May 27, 2005

New H5N1 vaccines developed by Chinese scientists

Two new vaccines for the deadly strain of the bird flu, H5N1 have been developed by Chinese scientists.

Chen Hualan, director of the China National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory said the vaccines have been permitted by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture to be sold on the market and have shown an effective rate of 100 percent.

They also said they are willing to provide technical support in epidemic prevention to other countries and regions and to contribute to the breeding industry and public health security worldwide. So far, Vietnam has expressed interest in inoculating all their live fowl.

China has also developed three new technologies that would confirm an epidemic in just 10 hours compared to 72 hours in the past. Dr. Bernard Vallat, Director General of World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), said that China is currently leading the world in research on bird flu and relevant technologies for prevention. 

There have been no reports on the success rate of bird flu vaccines in wild water birds like the ones in Qinghai province that were found to have carried the disease.  However, experimental results show that the newly developed vaccines of Chen's lab are equally effective in water fowl, and ducks and geese. This is vital for stopping any spread further spread of bird flu, said Chen.

Both the activated and inactivated vaccines are safe to food security, as the meat of fowls being inoculated with the vaccines have been proven in experiments not to be affected, she added.