The United States and Europe are taking steps to purchase or produce H5N1 avian influenza vaccines to protect at-risk poultry and dairy farm workers, vets, and laboratory technicians. US government officials said they are making a finished vaccine with a batch vaccine of CSL Seqirus, which is very similar to the current virus, to provide 4.8 million doses of the vaccine. European health officials say they are in talks to get the CSL Seqirus pre-pandemic vaccine. Influenza experts say these measures can contain the threat of the bird flu pandemic.

Additionally, Canadian health officials say they have partnered with seasonal influenza vaccine producers$GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.US)$The meeting was held to discuss obtaining and producing the avian influenza vaccine after the company's seasonal influenza vaccine production capacity was released. Other countries, including the UK, are discussing how to continue developing pre-pandemic vaccines.

According to data, the pre-pandemic influenza vaccine was produced in advance before the pandemic occurred. This vaccine is produced based on the now discovered avian influenza H5N1 virus, which may cause a pandemic, and can trigger an immune protective response against a potentially popular H5N1 virus strain. The influenza pandemic vaccine, on the other hand, is produced immediately using a specific strain of the pandemic virus when an influenza pandemic is announced. However, due to the long time required for production, this vaccine can only be supplied for use 4 to 6 months after the outbreak of the pandemic, which seems too late for the harm caused by the first round of the pandemic.

An outbreak of avian influenza has broken out in the United States

Last Wednesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that a farm worker in Michigan tested positive for bird flu. This is the second case of human infection with bird flu in the US, indicating that the H1N5 bird flu virus is raging in the US. Additionally, the US Department of Agriculture said on May 24 that it detected avian influenza in tissue samples from a cow and confirmed that 58 dairy farms in 9 US states were infected with avian influenza.

Human exposure to the virus during poultry and dairy operations may increase the risk that the virus will mutate and spread easily among people. Although US health officials insist that the risk to the public is still low because there is no human transmission, the CDC also acknowledged that given the high content of the virus in unpasteurized raw milk and the extent of transmission through cows, more cases may be detected in humans.

Matthew Miller, co-director of the Center for Epidemic Prevention at McMaster University in Canada, said, “All of our efforts need to focus on preventing these events from happening.” “Once humans are widely infected, we're in big trouble.”

University of Saskatchewan virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen said she has been discussing with US and Canadian officials the use of vaccines to protect workers after the virus spreads to new mammalian species. Dawn O'Connell of the US Strategic Preparedness and Response Administration said the US government is “closely watching” the possibility of vaccinating farm workers and others in close contact with the virus.

Pre-pandemic vaccine stocks

According to reports, the US has signed contracts with CSL Seqirus and GlaxoSmithKline to test pre-pandemic vaccines. This vaccine is closer to a mobile virus than the old H5N1 vaccine in stock. An official from the US Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that the US is advancing research and development of the CSL Seqirus vaccine.

The US stocks pre-pandemic vaccine candidates and vaccines against a range of influenza strains, and conducts clinical trials to support emergency use authorization or US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in the event of a pandemic. ranging$Sanofi (SNY.US)$Seasonal influenza vaccine manufacturers, including commercial ones, may be required to switch to the production of influenza pandemic vaccines. The US is still working with$Pfizer (PFE.US)$und$Moderna (MRNA.US)$Negotiate a potential pandemic vaccine.

CDC Chief Deputy Director Nirav Shah said decisions on how and when to use the vaccine will depend on evidence of increased transmission, the severity of the disease, cases unrelated to dairy farms, and mutations in the virus.

Wendy Barclay, chairman of influenza virology at University College London and who also studies bird flu at the UK Health and Safety Authority, said discussions on pre-pandemic vaccine use are ongoing at the government level and among scientists in many places, including the UK. She said strategic deployment in dairy farmers, health care workers, and people in close contact with infected animals “will contain the virus,” although she said it is unclear whether this step is necessary.

Stefan De Keersmaecker, a spokesman for the European Commission's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Service, said Europe is jointly procuring the CSL Seqirus vaccine to “potentially prevent” pandemics caused by exposure to infected birds and animals.

CSL Seqirus has contracts with 30 governments for pre-pandemic vaccines. A spokesperson for the company said that since 2022, the company has been in negotiations with several governments to procure the vaccine. She said these negotiations have been accelerated with the outbreak of the bird flu epidemic in the United States.