Sally Furniss
Well-known member
Canada stockpiles avian flu vaccines
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-05/17/content_6112691.htm
OTTAWA, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Canada is stockpiling more than 10 million doses of avian flu vaccine as a hedge against possible epidemic outbreak in poultry, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Wednesday.
The agency has purchased from a U.S. company 5 million doses apiece of poultry vaccines against H5 and H7 avian influenza viruses, which will be added to the 400,000 doses of an H5 vaccine bought last year, said Jim Clark, national manager of the agency's avian influenza working group.
"If there was an inability to control the disease using traditional stamping out methods, vaccine would be something that might be used to be more effective and dampen down the opportunity for the disease to spread so that we had an opportunity to get ahead of it," Clark said.
He said as part of a warning system to detect any early outbreaks, the agency is planning to sample 16,000 birds, up from 12,000 last year.
Detection, collection and sampling of dead birds are the focus of the early warning system, he stressed.
Up to now, the Asian H5N1 strain has never been found in North America. But a low path-H7N3 that ratcheted up to high pathogenicity caused a severe outbreak in western Canada in 2004, leading to devastating economic losses.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-05/17/content_6112691.htm
OTTAWA, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Canada is stockpiling more than 10 million doses of avian flu vaccine as a hedge against possible epidemic outbreak in poultry, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Wednesday.
The agency has purchased from a U.S. company 5 million doses apiece of poultry vaccines against H5 and H7 avian influenza viruses, which will be added to the 400,000 doses of an H5 vaccine bought last year, said Jim Clark, national manager of the agency's avian influenza working group.
"If there was an inability to control the disease using traditional stamping out methods, vaccine would be something that might be used to be more effective and dampen down the opportunity for the disease to spread so that we had an opportunity to get ahead of it," Clark said.
He said as part of a warning system to detect any early outbreaks, the agency is planning to sample 16,000 birds, up from 12,000 last year.
Detection, collection and sampling of dead birds are the focus of the early warning system, he stressed.
Up to now, the Asian H5N1 strain has never been found in North America. But a low path-H7N3 that ratcheted up to high pathogenicity caused a severe outbreak in western Canada in 2004, leading to devastating economic losses.