In practice, most vaccination programs against the H9N2 variant of bird flu appear to be ineffective in poultry. This is the conclusion of doctoral candidate Xue Pan after research with which he hopes to obtain his doctorate at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) next Wednesday.
While other virus strains plague Dutch poultry farming, the H9N2 bird flu virus is the most common and most harmful low-pathogenic bird flu virus in the world. The virus not only harms livestock farming, but also poses a huge challenge to public health, according to WUR. According to Pan, vaccination is the most important and effective strategy to control this virus.
However, that is still not enough. That was the reason for the researcher to find out which factors can disrupt the effectiveness of this vaccine. He also looked at ideas to improve the effectiveness of this vaccine and ways to increase the effectiveness of the vaccine.
‘Vaccination not the solution’
Vaccination is not the only solution to fight bird flu, but vaccination is like a safe effective blanket that prevents an outbreak. Biosecurity (hygiene) is the most effective way to prevent bird flu from entering the stables. Poultry veterinarian Rogier van Leeuwen of pharmaceutical company Ceva said this to Pluimveeweb.nl in December.