After four years of repeated and widespread bird flu infections, American poultry producers are actively looking at vaccination against the disease.
Nearly 170 million chickens have been culled because of bird flu in the United States since 2022, WattPoultry reported. The article looked at the implications for US producers if large-scale vaccination is undertaken.
“After so many years of continuous outbreak, we kind of realise that mass depopulation maybe is not the tool to get rid of the problem,” said Maurice Raccoursier, clinical assistant professor at the University of Georgia’s Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre.
“We need to think about vaccination.”
One of the problems is that, while vaccinated birds survive bird flu infections, they can still transmit the virus without showing any obvious symptoms. This means producers would have to move from passive to active surveillance and testing to catch infections that vaccines can mask, and to differentiate between vaccinated and infected birds.
“Vaccination is one of the very important tools that you have,” Raccoursier said.
“But as important, even more than vaccination, is biosecurity, of course, and active surveillance.”
The US is looking for lessons from Europe. Holland has done a number of vaccination studies, and France has required vaccination of commercial duck farms since 2023.
