The United States Department of Agriculture is in the process of developing a vaccine for the Avian Flu. However it does not intend to distribute it at this time. The USDA is testing the new vaccines on chickens to protect the poultry from new strains of bird flu.
Since December, Avian Flu has infected the commercial poultry industry as well as backyard flocks across eight states. The latest strains have been detected in wild birds making it difficult to predict where the next instance of bird flu can be seen.
During the course of next two months, researchers at the USDA Georgia lab will be testing the efficacy of the bird flu vaccine.
The US Government has said that it has no plans for distributing the vaccine at this time. The vaccine has been created only as a part of a prevention and containment strategy.
It has been reported that the new strains of avian flu has already killed a number of birds in the states of Washington and Arkansas.
According to Reuters, the H5N2 and H5N8 bird flu strains has made its way to eight states in the U.S. since December 2014 and it has affected both commercial and backyard flocks. The latest outbreak has also affected exports with many overseas buyers of poultry from the U.S. limiting their purchases to reduce the risk of infecting other birds. Two of the biggest poultry producers in the world, Sanderson Farms and Tyson Foods have already increased their farms’ bio-security.
Health commissioner Timothy Angel from Ross Country said that the new strain of bird flu does not constitute any risk for humans. However he cautioned that it can further mutate and infect the human population.
Angel said, “There’s no danger to people right now, but we’d like to get the word out to farmers or to anyone who might have flocks of turkey or chicken in the area and let them know what to look for.”
It has been recommended that the domestic flocks must be kept away from the wild birds.
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