It has been coming for a while, and yet it is a milestone in the fight against bird flu: the European Commission has given the green light for vaccination against the disease. Vaccination is allowed from March 12. Not that there is an approved bird flu vaccine yet, but this step is necessary first.
Vaccination is a sensitive issue in the European Union. Since the 1990s, the EU has had a non-vaccination policy against a number of diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease, swine fever and bird flu. The underlying idea is that vaccination is more expensive than culling in incidental outbreaks. International trade barriers also play a role.
Previous epidemics of FMD and swine fever have already shaken this policy. Now with the bird flu epidemic, which killed more than 200 million birds in 2022 alone, the policy has become truly unsustainable. In Europe, the disease has been diagnosed in more than 2,500 farms.
European Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, responsible for food safety, put the fight against bird flu at the top of the priority list. Member states must coordinate their policies so that there are no regional differences and/or trade restrictions.
Strict rules for bird flu vaccine
After this step, we have to wait for a vaccine against bird flu. Only one manufacturer has yet applied for registration. The rules are strict. The vaccine must work, the chickens must remain healthy, and importantly: it must inhibit the spread of the virus. Trials are underway in the Netherlands with one type of vaccine per animal. Elsewhere, a combination of vaccines is being trialled. Field tests only follow these laboratory tests.
In short, it will be some time before there is actually a vaccine against bird flu. Corona has shown that if it is serious, trajectories in the official route can run parallel. Might be an idea to take a look at this.