AMSTERDAM/PARIS (Reuters) – Two vaccines tested by a Dutch veterinary research centre have proved effective against highly infectious bird flu in a first experiment conducted under a controlled environment, Dutch authorities said on Friday.
“Not only did the vaccines give poultry used in the lab protection against disease symptoms but they also countered the spreading of the bird flu,” the Dutch government said in a statement.
Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has been spreading around the world in the past year, killing more than 200 million birds – and six million in the Netherlands alone – sending egg prices rocketing and raising concern among governments about human transmission.
The new vaccines have been tested by the Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, located northeast of Amsterdam, at the behest of Dutch minister of agriculture Piet Adema.
“I’m happy that we have two vaccines with which we can take the vaccination process against bird flu forward. I’m putting in the next steps as quickly as possible but in a responsible way (…),” Adema said in the statement.
French veterinary pharmaceuticals firm Ceva Sante Animale told Reuters it had developed one of the two vaccines that proved effective.
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Susan Fenton)
