July 26, 2007

 

India won't vaccinate poultry despite bird flu

 

 

India has no immediate plans to vaccinate its poultry birds despite H5 type of bird flu affecting a village in one its north eastern states, a senior government official said Wednesday.

 

"Vaccination isn't required for the time being. Government is relying on culling birds in the affected areas," said S.K. Bandyopadhyay, India's animal husbandry commissioner.

 

He said that the government has taken a conscious decision not to use vaccination, even as a measure to prevent bird flu because that may result in the virus mutating at lower levels and still remaining undetected.

 

Bandyopadhyay said this might not necessarily be the case because vaccination in a region doesn't prevent the virus to infect birds and humans in a region while immunising only a select group of population in those pockets.

 

He said culling of birds is a more effective way of controlling bird flu.

 

He said only when the outbreak of bird flu is severe, it is prevalent in multiple locations and culling isn't viable that vaccination is deployed.

 

Separately, Joint Animal Husbandry Secretary Upma Choudhary said a stockpile of animal poultry vaccines is being maintained and the practice would continue.

 

"Since all vaccines have a shelf life of a limited period, we will continue to destroy them and then replenish them," said Choudhary.

 

Bandyopadhyay said: "Just to save a little money that is lost when a vaccine expires doesn't mean it has to be used on animals. Vaccination would bring in complacency in the efforts to control bird-flu".

 

He said most of these bird-flu vaccines have a shelf-life between 2.0 years and 2.5 years.