VietNamNet Bridge – Director of the Institute for Biological Technology, Le Tran Binh, spoke to Dai Doan Ket (Great Unity) newspaper about research on bird flu vaccines.

There are some countries in the world which have successfully produced vaccines against bird flu. Is the institute researching a different type of vaccine to the ones that already exist?

Currently, some countries including China, Italy and the Netherlands have successfully produced vaccines to prevent type A bird flu in the H5N2, H5N1 and H5N9 strains of the virus.

The US Government has also invested more than US$1bil across five companies to research production of bird flu vaccines for humans.

In 2005, the institute received various virus samples to produce vaccine NIBRG-14, developed by the UK's National Institute for Biological Standard and Control.

This type has been recognised by the World Health Organisation and is recommended for production across the world.

Other countries such as China, Hungary and Brazil have applied this type to produce vaccines for poultry. Some of them have planned to produce vaccines for humans.

Compared to others, vaccine NIBRG-14 is more suited to the situation in Vietnam, as its genes come from the virus type affecting Vietnam.

At the moment, capacity for producing the vaccine in Vietnam has been enhanced so that we can be ready when demand for the vaccine rises.

How has the research been going?

So far, the institute has completed initial steps for producing vaccines for virus type A-H5N1 for poultry.

The technology has been transferred and production has been implemented at three units which are the Institute of Biological Technology, the Central Animal Health Medicine Factory in Ha Tay Province and the Central Animal Health Medicine Company in HCM City.

Each unit has produced six batches of safe vaccines. Those can be used for chicken, ducks and geese.

All batches have been tested and passed the requirements of the Centre of Central Animal Health Medicine Testing.

In the next phase we will complete research and conduct further testing.

When will the vaccine be fully applied in practice?

We've planned to conduct final testing by the end of year. The National Steering Committee on Bird Flu encourages us to be active in producing the vaccine so that we have a preventative approach that will save money.

However, we have to follow all the necessary procedures step by step. That is regulated in the Ordinance on Animal Health.

(Source: Viet Nam News)