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German Farmers Urge "Marker Vaccine" for Poultry Against Avian Flu

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 12:01 CDT

Text of report by German news agency ddp on 19 October

Berlin: In the combat against avian flu, the German Farmers Association has urged the production of a marker vaccine for poultry. This is one of the most important tasks to avoid unnecessary mass slaughters in case that the dangerous virus, H5N1, arrives also in Germany, Helmut Born, secretary-general of the association, told the news agency ddp on Wednesday [19 October].

Born recalled the bad experiences when the foot and mouth disease broke out in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in 2001. There, 90 per cent of the animals that were killed as a precaution had been healthy, he said. With a vaccine, these enormous losses for the poultry industry could be avoided.

However, Born stressed that, in the case of an outbreak of avian flu, the animals at the affected operations would have to be killed. In other regions, with the help of a previously developed basic serum, an appropriate vaccine could be applied to prevent the possible spread of the avian flu virus. In such a case, a so-called marker vaccine is needed to be able to distinguish an ill animal from a healthy, vaccinated one.

In this connection, the secretary-general of the Farmers Association welcomed the mandatory indoor housing of domestic and barnyard fowl as well as breeding poultry that has been introduced all over Bavaria on Wednesday. Bavaria would be "affected first" because it is located "closest to the infected areas in Romania's Danube delta", he said. "We also accept that other federal states, such as, for example, Brandenburg, are opposed to mandatory indoor housing at present, because the risk is assessed differently there," Born stressed. However, if the avian flu virus comes closer to Germany's borders, the Farmers Association expects mandatory indoor housing of poultry to be introduced nationwide.

Source: BBC Monitoring European

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