November 25, 2005

Poultry vaccination will cause bird flu spread, WHO says

The inappropriate use of poultry vaccination against bird flu has become part of the current bird flu problem and has serious human health implications, a WHO official said this week.

WHO's spokesman in Manila, Peter Cordingley, said that vaccination can cause a silent transmission of infection from asymptomatic birds. Mass vaccination programmes will require people going from farm to farm in the countryside and as such, can spread the disease.

For the past four years, fowls have been vaccinated against bird flu while China recently announced that it intends to vaccinate all its four billion chickens against bird flu.