The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Wageningen Bioveterinary Research are discussing a vaccine trial to combat bird flu. This is announced by outgoing agriculture minister Carola Schouten in a letter to parliament in which she answers questions about vaccination against animal diseases.
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In the letter to Parliament, Schouten indicates that the livestock sector already makes extensive use of vaccinations to protect animals against animal diseases. In addition, there are category A diseases, contagious diseases that do not occur in the European Union or that must be combated immediately because of their major consequences. Vaccination is mandatory in Europe for Newcastle disease in poultry, as is Q fever in goats and sheep and rabies in dogs.
Mandatory vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease or classical swine fever is now out of the question because these diseases do not occur in Europe. African swine fever does occur, but there is no suitable vaccine available against it.
There is also no vaccine against bird flu yet, but one is under development. The minister is in consultation with the poultry sector and the Animal Protection Society about the preconditions for vaccination against bird flu. In addition, the European Union is committed to exploring the possibilities of vaccination.
Consultation on bird flu vaccine trial
According to Schouten, researchers from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) are currently discussing a vaccine trial. It should test a vaccine that should prevent the spread of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.
This test is performed under controlled (high containment) conditions. WBVR has the necessary facilities for this with an extremely high degree of biosecurity. This prevents the highly pathogenic virus from escaping during the trial.
The vaccine trial still needs approval from the Central Animal Testing Committee. In addition, the Netherlands and France are looking at other options for a trial with a vaccine against highly pathogenic bird flu. More information about the progress of the trial will follow in the first quarter of 2022.
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