AMSTERDAM/PARIS, March 17 (Reuters) – Two vaccines tested by a Dutch veterinary research center have been shown to be effective against bird flu in an initial experiment conducted in a controlled environment, the Dutch government said on Friday.
“The vaccines not only protected poultry used in the laboratory against disease symptoms, but they also prevented the spread of avian flu,” the government said in a statement.
One of the vaccines was produced by the French company Ceva Animal Health and the other by the German company Boehringer Ingelheim, according to an official document published on the Dutch government’s website.
Bird flu spread around the world last year, killing more than 200 million birds.
Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, located northeast of Amsterdam, tested four vaccines for chickens before selecting those from Ceva Animal Health and Boehringer Ingelheim. The other two vaccines tested were produced by Bulgarian company Huvepharma and Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) respectively, according to the official document.
“I am happy that we have two vaccines with which we can move the process of vaccination against avian flu forward. I am implementing the next steps as quickly as possible, but in a responsible way (…)”, declared Dutch Agriculture Minister Piet Adema in the statement.
A field trial will be launched to test whether vaccines that work in the laboratory are also effective if applied in wider conditions.
The trial is expected to last more than a year to give an idea of how long the chickens’ immunity will last after vaccination, Piet Adema said in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives on Friday, also available on the website. of the government.
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