December 27, 2005

 

China approves new bird flu vaccine

 

China's Ministry of Agriculture said it has approved a new bird flu vaccine that was also developed to work against Newcastle disease, another poultry ailment.

 

The country was also hit by Newcastle disease outbreaks in September, which killed at least 56,700 chickens on the Chinese mainland, the agriculture ministry said.

 

Harbin Veterinary Research Institute took four years to develop the live vaccine, which would provide significant support to prevention and control of both poultry diseases in China and around the world, Chief Veterinary Officer Jia Youling said.

 

While the virus is killed in standard flu shots, live vaccines contain weakened forms of the live virus.

 

The agriculture ministry said the live vaccine has a longer shelf life of 18 months, but did not give details on the shelf life of other vaccines.

 

Jia added that besides injection, the vaccine could be administered orally, nasally or by spraying. Mass-application techniques would also significantly reduce labour costs and increase poultry immunity, Jia said.

 

The new vaccine would be very affordable as its production cost is only one-fifth that of conventional vaccines available on the market, according to Jia.

 

Bu Zhigao, a chief scientist involved in the development project, said the vaccine proved effective in protecting mammals such as mice from bird flu during laboratory trials.

 

Jia said one billion shots of the vaccine would be produced by the end of this month, and would be used alongside other vaccines starting early 2006.

 

By mid-December, 6.85 billion domestic birds had been vaccinated, Jia said.

 

Meanwhile, Asian regional director of the World Health Organization Shigeru Omi cautioned that vaccinations were "not a magic bullet", and were only 70 to 80 percent effective.