# 2149
Well, maybe . . .
First the news report, then some discussion.
Vaccinated chickens in Vietnam die of bird flu
Posted : Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:56:02 GMT
Hanoi - Hundreds of chickens at a poultry farm in southern Vietnam died of avian influenza even though the owner of the farm reported the birds were vaccinated against the disease, an official said Thursday.
Several hundred of the 3,000 chickens died at a farm in Tan Lan commune in the Long An province, 50 kilometres west of Ho Chi Minh City, since late June. Last week they were tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus, said Dinh Van The, head of the province's Animal Health Department.
The owner of the farm reported to the department that all the birds in the farm had been vaccinated against bird flu, he said.
"We suspect that the owner of the farm was not honest in his report, or the vaccine used at the farm was of bad quality," The said. "We are investigating the case."
Poultry vaccine against the H5N1 virus is generally made from the less pathogenic H5N2 virus, or sometimes, another H5 variant.
In the past couple of weeks we've heard warnings from Hong Kong over fears their vaccine is losing effectiveness, and presumably, that could be happening elsewhere as well.
Hong Kong expert warns flu vaccine for chickens losing efficacy
Jul 8, 2008, 4:19 GMT
Hong Kong - A vaccine used to stop outbreaks of the deadly bird flu virus in chickens in Hong Kong for the last seven years is losing its effectiveness, a leading microbiologist warned Tuesday.
Professor Yuen Kwok-yung said the vaccine, which protects chicken from the H5 strain of the virus, is becoming less effective and the city risks further outbreaks because total failure is inevitable.
While there have been scattered reports in the past of vaccinated flocks succumbing to the H5N1 virus, in the cases I've seen it was always attributed to improper vaccination techniques, or a false claim that the poultry had been vaccinated.
As this report from Vietnam states, they are investigating those possibilities.
So it is too soon to draw any conclusions.
If this turns out to be a genuine failure of the vaccine, however, it could be a serious blow to many country's bird flu containment and control programs.
Time will tell.
