Digard, meanwhile, says it would be wise to check dairy herds in the UK for the new strain, even though there is no evidence it has escaped North America.
In the EU, EFSA has advised increased surveillance of mammals, particularly those located near poultry farms affected by avian flu.
Do we have bird flu vaccines?
There are vaccines that could be effective against bird flu, but it remains unclear how effective they would be against a particular strain or how quickly companies could scale up production.
A GSK spokesperson told POLITICO the company has a contract with the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority to produce 85 million doses of its pandemic preparedness vaccine, Adjupanrix, if needed. Adjupanrix is a “mock-up” flu vaccine that could be adapted to any flu strain that emerges as the cause of a pandemic.
A spokesperson for the European Commission, meanwhile, confirmed that it had entered into a joint contract with GSK and CSL Seqirus for the companies to supply suitable flu vaccines if necessary in the event of a pandemic.
Andrew Fenwick, a spokesperson for CSL Seqirus, told POLITICO that the company’s zoonotic flu vaccine would likely protect against the strain currently circulating in the United States.
The European Medicines Agency also approved AstraZeneca’s pandemic flu vaccine, which was tested with a strain of the H5N1 virus.
Politices
