The $500 million cut in United States vaccine research may side-swipe research on a vaccine to counter highly-pathogenic avian influenza that has resulted in the culling of millions of chickens and a spike in egg prices.
Officials are not yet entirely certain if the bird flu vaccine project has been cut, but Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, has announced that mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will “wind down,” immediately terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development programs.
Meanwhile, the poultry industry in Europe has begun to use vaccines to stop the spread of the deadly virus.
There are mixed opinions about whether a vaccine should replace flock culling to stop the disease from spreading in the Canadian and U.S. poultry industries.
Birds that have been vaccinated are difficult to distinguish from birds sick with the virus, so export markets might be lost if vaccination is permitted.
