# 5769
Dr. C. A. Nidom and Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java have been often mentioned in this blog as they represent the vanguard of bird flu research in Indonesia.
Regular readers of this blog will recognize Dr. Nidom as being the researcher who did serological testing on stray cats in Indonesia a number of years ago and found 20% had antibodies to the H5N1 virus.
You can read about his research here, here, and here.
Dr. Nidom has also been a vocal opponent of relying on poultry vaccines to control Indonesia’s bird flu problem (see Indonesia: Debate Over Poultry Vaccination) rather than culling.
Today, the Jakarta Post is reporting that they have created the first locally developed seed vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu virus.
Airlangga University produces first ever locally-produced bird flu vaccine seed
The Jakarta Post, Surabaya | Sun, 08/21/2011 6:54 PM
Researchers at Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, have succeeded in creating a bird flu vaccine seed that could potentially kill the deadly virus if it were contracted by humans.
We’ve talked about concerns over the growing diversity of the H5N1 virus – particularly in Indonesia – and this article references the detection of 170 local variants to date.
Perhaps we’ll get more information from the Bird Flu Information Corner in the coming days, as they are part a joint initiative between Japan’s Kobe University and the Institute of Tropical Disease, Airlangga University, Indonesia.
