Those who work with poultry will have high priority, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
That includes those involved in depopulating flocks where the virus has been detected and laboratory staff members who handle samples.
Dr. Theresa Tam said the virus poses little threat to people right now, but if it begins to transmit from person to person, the threat level would increase.
Matthew Miller, director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University, called purchasing bird flu vaccines a “prudent decision.”
“My view on this in the wake of COVID-19 is that prevention at the stage we’re at right now is way more straightforward than trying to respond once we get human-to-human transmission,” he said, “because right now, we mostly know where the risk is.”
In the United States, provisional approval has been granted for a vaccine that could be used on flocks and cattle herds.
The government there is pondering a shift from a policy of depopulating flocks to stem the spread of the virus to vaccinating flocks.
