| | Ken Rudd, Biobusiness Consultants, Galena, IL. On occasion CHICK-CITE posts guest contributions by specialists in relevant fields. Ken Rudd retired from Merial after a long career in avian vaccine development and marketing both in North America and the International arena has followed the controversy over vaccination against HPAI. In the following article he shares his experience and observations relating to the control and eradication of future outbreaks of HPAI in the context of the U.S |
Introduction
Vaccination was one of the more contentious issues arising from the Spring 2015 epornitic of HPAI in upper Midwest states. The infection was and still is regarded as an exotic disease necessitating eradication. Despite widespread and intensive depletion of affected farms following rapid diagnosis, cases were diagnosed on large units on a daily basis in late April, May and early June. This resulted in turkey and egg producers at risk to request the USDA-APHIS to allow the use of inactivated vaccine as a component of the control program. As it turned out a decision was made not to introduce vaccination. This was due to strong opposition from the broiler producers who were completely unaffected and were justifiably concerned over losing their export markets for leg quarters estimated at close to 3 million metric tons and valued at $4.5 billion in 2015.
Fortunately the efforts to eradicate infection through quarantines and depletion of affected farms by the USDA-APHIS together with cessation of shedding of virus by waterfowl carriers in April and enhanced biosecurity resulted in an end to incident cases by mid-June. The USDA APHIS has confirmed that in the event of a future serious outbreak, possibly involving the broiler and turkey-producing states under the Atlantic flyway, vaccine would be employed as a component of a control program. To this effect, contracts have been awarded to two manufacturers to create a stockpile of H5 vaccine. The role of vaccination in the control of avian influenza has been reviewed on poultry-related websites and periodicals and was the subject of a recent webinar Vaccination as Part of an Avian Flu Eradication Plan with three speakers considering vaccination as a control measure from their respective experience.