Governments should consider vaccinating poultry against bird flu, which has killed hundreds of millions of birds and infected mammals worldwide, to prevent the virus from turning into a new pandemic, the head of the World Organization for Animal Health said.
The severity of the current outbreak of avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, and the economic and personal damage it has caused, has led governments to reconsider vaccinating poultry. However, some, like the United States, remain reluctant mainly because of the trade curbs this would entail.
“We are coming out of a COVID crisis where every country realized the hypothesis of a pandemic was real,” World Organization for Animal Health Director General Monique Eloit told Reuters in an interview.
“Since almost every country that does international trade has now been infected, maybe it’s time to discuss vaccination, in addition to systematic culling which remains the main tool (to control the disease),” she said.
The Paris-based organization is holding a five-day general session from Sunday, and will focus on global control of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI.
A World Organization for Animal Health survey showed only 25% of its member states would accept imports of products from poultry vaccinated against HPAI.
The European Union’s 27 member states agreed last year to implement a bird flu vaccine strategy.
France, which spent about $1.10 billion in 2021/22 to compensate the poultry industry for massive cullings, is set to be the first EU country to begin a vaccination programme, starting with ducks.