December 12, 2005

US reluctant to use poultry vaccine

The US is reluctant to use poultry vaccines on domestic birds due to concerns that this would hurt poultry exports. However, the country also faced a hard decision in light of its efforts to stockpile such vaccines in preparation against a possible bird flu outbreak.

According to scientists, curbing the H5N1 bird flu virus when it still infected birds only was the best way to prevent a human pandemic of the disease.

However, feedback from the American poultry industry indicated importing countries would likely ban shipments from states where poultry had been vaccinated. This was because many importing countries used screening tests that were unable to differentiate between vaccinated poultry and those infected with bird flu itself.

The USDA bought 40 million doses of poultry vaccine in 2004 for four strains of bird flu, and is seeking Congress funding to raise its stockpile to 110 million doses. USDA also hoped two-thirds of its stockpile would protect poultry from the highly pathogenic H5N1 stain.