The U.S. Department of Agriculture has picked two vaccine companies to make and stockpile avian influenza vaccine for poultry as producers brace themselves for the virus to crop up again this fall.
The companies are Iowa-based Harrisvaccines, and France-based Ceva Corp.
Under the contract with USDA, they will manufacture vaccine and store doses for up to 5 years, though they must test the stores vaccine regularly to ensure it remains potent.
Poultry industry leaders and animal health experts have held vaccines as a sort of last resort if the disease begins to decimate one of the most important sectors of agriculture in the U.S. Using the vaccine would have trade implications, so the industry has kept it in check through monitoring, biosecurity measures and culling flocks that were exposed.
Last spring and winter the highly contagious and deadly H5N2 strain of the virus killed 50 million birds that either died from the disease or were culled to prevent the virus from spreading.
If the vaccines are needed, the companies agreed to deliver doses anywhere in the United States within 10 days of a request from the National Veterinary Stockpile.
State agriculture departments across the Midwest and Southeast have made preparation a priority, fearing that fall bird migration, along with risk factors like poultry fairs and bird hunting, could introduce the disease into commercial grow houses again this autumn.
Georgia launched an educational website with a provocative name to remind producers what’s at stake if they allow lapses in biosecurity – All In or All Gone (www.allinallgone.com).
“Now is the time for every farmer, every person associated with the poultry industry, to commit to biosecurity. We must all realize that preparation is no substitute for prevention,” Ag Commissioner Gary Black said when the site launched. The poultry-egg industry contributes more than $28 billion a year to Georgia’s economy and supports nearly 109,000 jobs.
Poultry giants such as Perdue and Tyson are working with producers to enhance security, while animal-health companies and farm-equipment makers are turning out tools to help euthanize flocks and decontaminate barns, if necessary.
“We have every reason to believe we could see an outbreak of some sort this fall as wild birds come back through the middle of the U.S.,” said Bill Northey, Iowa’s agriculture secretary. The state was the top egg producer in the country before this year, when half 60 million egg-laying hens were killed in the outbreak.
The USDA and Iowa State University also have translated USDA biosecurity training materials from English into Spanish, to ensure that language barrier doesn’t allow the virus to spread through inconsistent security measures.
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