A study on a new vaccine preparation against the H5N1 virus has just been published in the scientific journal NPJ Vaccines – Nature.
The team for this study includes foreign and Canadian researchers, including Steve Bourgault, professor in the chemistry department at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). In our study, we had simply 100% protection, which is really interesting, he rejoices.
It’s as if the chickens were very well immunized, and above all, they couldn’t contaminate their neighbors, explains Mr. Bourgault, who adds that this vaccine preparation is really special. We protect against a distant strain linked to the material used to make the vaccine.
“What is important in our formulation is the nanoparticle approach to induce a slightly stronger immunological reaction against one of the antigens that came from the influenza virus.”
— A quote from Steve Bourgault, professor in the Department of Chemistry at UQAM
The researcher deplores the significant financial losses in the event of contamination with the H5N1 virus in the poultry industry. Very primarily, the concern is an economic concern at present in Canada. So obviously, if a case is detected in a farm, it means the entire farm is slaughtered, explains Mr. Bourgault.
The next steps in this advancement towards a vaccine against the H5N1 virus, according to Steve Bourgault, consist of discussions with industrial partners and also for the search for subsidies. We are entering a bit of what is called a somewhat transitional period, he specifies.
Researcher Steve Bourgault co-authored the study with, among others, Denis Archambault, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Université du Québec à MontréalUQAM, Yohannes Berhane, head of the Canadian Reference Laboratory on Influence at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases (CNMAE) in Winnipeg, as well as Christophe Chevalier and Ronan Le Goffic, research directors at the Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE), in France.
