India develops local bird flu vaccine

Jul 17 2006

Officials in India say they have successfully produced a vaccine against bird flu in poultry.

Indian agricultural scientists believe they have made a breakthrough in developing a vaccine against the deadly H5N1 virus and have done so in a relatively short period of time.

Sharad Pawar the country's Agriculture Minister and president of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research says the vaccine was derived from the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

India has invested Rs.80m ($1.8m) in the development of a vaccine following the culling of hundreds of thousands of birds since February when it reported its first outbreak in poultry, resulting in huge losses for many poultry farmers.

No human infections have been reported, but Indian authorities were quick to act and thousands of people were monitored for flu-like symptoms.

The country had been relying on vaccine imported from Netherlands and produced the vaccine at a laboratory in Bhopal which is the main facility in the country for testing and research.

India is not at this stage developing a vaccine for humans.

Indian authorities say bird flu outbreaks have subsided and in six months the country could be declared free from the infection.

According to the World Health Organisation the H5N1 strain of avian flu has to date killed 132 people since 2003.