Int’l - Thailand Wants Bird Flu Vaccine, But Experts Say No

As Thailand comes to grips with another outbreak of bird flu, the government appears keen to go down the risky road of vaccinating poultry as a potent countermeasure to stall the spread of this lethal disease. On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng, who is heading a government committee to contain the H5N1 strain of avian flu, gave the green light for the country's researchers to experiment with vaccines best suited for this South-east Asian country. The outcome of such efforts should help the government pursue a comprehensive programme to contain bird flu, he was quoted as having told the local press this week. It marks a departure from the position Thailand maintained towards vaccines at the beginning of this year, when two thirds of the country's 76 provinces were infected by the lethal H5N1 strain of avian flu. Soon after the government confirmed on Jan. 23 that Thailand had bird flu, it slapped a ban on attempts to experiment with potential bird flu vaccines. ''There are two different vaccines that are available, but currently there is no vaccine registered in Thailand,'' Hans-Gerhard Wagner, senior animal production and health officer at Asia-Pacific office of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), told IPS. Vaccine tests could last two months, he said, adding that it was up to the Thai government to decide after that if ''the use of vaccines is good or not good'' to counter bird flu. Thailand's turn towards vaccinating poultry goes against the current thinking of the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (known by its French acronym OIE), which still places faith on culling as the best countermeasure. That stems from concerns over the difficulty countries would have in differentiating between the vaccination of infected and uninfected poultry It could lead to the disease spreading ''through trade or movement of apparently uninfected birds,'' states research findings posted on the OIE's website. ''For this reason, export bans have been imposed on countries enforcing a vaccination policy,'' it adds. Bangkok's current move to consider vaccinating poultry has yet to factor in the possible economic fallouts of such a decision. Thailand's poultry industry is one of the lifelines for the country's economy. It is the world's fourth largest poultry exporter, with earnings last year of about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. The country's poultry sector took a sizeable beating when bird flu was confirmed early this year, including leading importers like Japan slapping bans on Thai chicken products and even domestic consumers turning their noses at poultry dishes. At the time, Thailand joined seven other Asian countries hit by bird flu to mount what is still deemed by agencies like the OIE and FAO as the best method to quash the lethal virus - namely culling poultry in infected areas. By the end of March this year, when it appeared that bird flu was on the wane, over 100 million chickens had been slaughtered or died due to the disease in eight Asian countries, which included China, Indonesia and Vietnam in addition to Thailand. The impact of the H5N1 virus in Vietnam and Thailand was most troubling, with 15 deaths due to avian flu in Vietnam and seven fatalities in Thailand. It alerted health authorities about the increasing danger of this virus, which is transmitted through the air and is released in nasal secretions and the faeces of infected birds, jumping species. The frightening prospect is that the virus can be transmitted from birds to humans and has the potential to trigger a global pandemic. That danger arose in 1997, when an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian flu in Hong Kong infected 18 residents, killing six of them. There is currently a fear of avian flu morphing into a pandemic that could be more devastating than the killer disease AIDS. And there are two reasons for that. Firstly it is the ease with which this lethal influenza could spread and secondly, humans lack a natural response against the H5N1 virus. Since bird flu reared its ugly head again this month in three Asian countries - China, Indonesia and Thailand -- the World Health Organisation (WHO) has sounded the alarm, given that ''the virus may be even more difficult (to contain) than thought in the spring.'' Quoting a recent report published in the journal 'Nature,' the Geneva-based U.N. health agency states that ''domestic and wild birds in the region may have contributed to the increasing spread of the virus'' and suggests that ''the virus is gaining a stronger foothold in the region.'' ''Our main worry is the people who will be culling infected birds. They have to wear protective clothing,'' Dr. Kumara Rai, acting WHO representative for Thailand, told IPS. Indonesia is of particular concern, he added, since people involved in culling chickens at the beginning of this year in the archipelago were not properly equipped with protective gear. The WHO's concern comes amidst reports that the new outbreak of bird flu -- which has resulted in over 90,000 chickens and ducks being killed or dying due to the disease in China, Indonesia and Thailand -- appears to be more potent. Chinese researchers published a study at the beginning of July stating that ''the virus appears to be widespread in domestic ducks in southern China.'' ''Further, the scientists found that the virus is causing increasingly severe disease,'' states the WHO. And the best hope of protecting people - a vaccine for bird flu -- is not imminent either. ''Efforts to produce a bird flu vaccine for humans are underway, but it will take a few years for that to come out,'' added Rai. ''We need more sample strains from the affected areas for an efficient vaccine.''