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MONDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists are reporting an effective and inexpensive way to vaccinate poultry against avian flu and, hopefully, prevent its spread to humans.
Researchers in Germany and New York City have independently attached the gene for avian flu virus onto an existing, widely used vaccine against a virus that causes another bird infection called Newcastle disease.
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"This is a very cheap vaccine that can be added to water or even sprayed," said Peter Palese, chairman of the department of microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, and lead author of one report. "We have grafted onto that a flu virus, using genetic engineering. Thereby one can now use the same vaccine for Newcastle disease that also has protection against [avian] influenza."
The same technique was reported by a group of researchers at the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health in Riems, Germany.
The reports appear in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We have tried our vaccine in chickens, and it works very well," Palese said, adding that Mount Sinai is negotiating with drug companies about mass production of the vaccine.
The Newcastle disease virus that now is in use costs less than a penny a bird, and the genetically engineered version to protect against avian flu should not cost much more, Palese said.
"This is a major breakthrough in terms of protecting chickens," he said.
The newly reported achievement is part of a major international effort to avoid a pandemic of bird flu in humans. Several hundred human cases -- including an estimated 115 deaths -- have been reported, and all the victims had been in close contact with infected birds. The fear is that the bird flu virus might mutate so it could spread easily from person to person.
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