January 11, 2016
US researchers develop multi-strain bird flu vaccine
Researchers at Kansas State University, together with Garcia-Sastre of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has developed a poultry vaccine against multiple strains of avian influenza found in the US, including H5N1, H5N2 and H5N8, Outbreak News reports.
The vaccine, named NDV-H5Nx, has the potential to be administered through water or into embryonated eggs.
It protects poultry against the three recently introduced US avian influenza strains- H5N1, H5N2 and H5N8- as well as against the Newcastle disease virus. Avian influenza killed millions of chickens and turkeys in the country in spring and summer of 2015, leading to billions in lost revenue for the US poultry industry.
Jürgen Richt, Regents distinguished professor of veterinary medicine, director of the US Department of Homeland Security''s Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases at Kansas State University and one of the researchers involved in the discovery, said, "The vaccine we produced is a live vaccine, which means it replicates in birds. Because it''s live, we believe that the vaccine could be sprayed into the air or put in the water supply so that when the chickens need a drink, they could be vaccinated. A poultry farm could vaccinate all of its birds in a single day because all living creatures need water to live."
The vaccine also has potential to be administered to developing chicks in eggs, resulting in offspring being automatically vaccinated for the diseases, said Wenjun Ma, Kansas State University assistant professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology and another of the researchers involved.
Currently, H5 vaccines on the market require that each chicken be injected by hand. As many poultry operations have millions of birds, it would take many hours to vaccinate every chicken.
In addition, the NDV-H5Nx vaccine has the ability to differentiate infected from vaccinated animals. This ability is critical for the US poultry industry as it provides evidence to trade partners that poultry have been vaccinated and is free of H5, Richt said.
Researchers developed the NDV-H5Nx vaccine with a recombinant virus technique similar to the one used to make the NDV-H5N1 and NDV-H7N9 vaccines in 2015.
Richt and Ma presented the project along with the proof-of-concept vaccination methods at a recent meeting of stakeholders and leaders in the US agricultural industry, including the chicken and turkey industries, who will help in the further development and adoption of the NDV-H5Nx vaccine. The researchers are currently preparing to publish their findings in a scientific journal.