Vaccines developed for H5N1 & H7N9

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/05/23/vaccines-developed-for-h5n1-h7n9-avian-fluA group of U.S. researchers say it has developed a vaccine for two strains of avian influenza that can be transmitted from poultry to humans.

The strains have led to the culling of millions of chickens and turkeys as well as the death of hundreds of people.

Jürgen Richt, the director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases, and his colleagues focussed on the avian influenza virus subtype H5N1 in wild birds in the U.S.

The team says it developed a vaccine for H5N1 by cloning the Newcastle disease virus that affects poultry and transplanted a small section of the H5N1 virus into it.

Their tests showed that the new virus vaccinated chickens against both Newcastle disease virus and H5N1.

Using the same method for developing the H5N1 vaccine, the scientists inserted a small section of the H7N9 virus into the Newcastle disease virus vaccine. The say chickens given this vaccine were protected against the Newcastle disease virus and H7N9.

"We believe this Newcastle disease virus concept works very well for poultry because you kill two birds with one stone, metaphorically speaking," Richt said. "You use only one vector to vaccinate and protect against a selected virus strain of avian influenza."

The findings appear in the Journal of Virology.