Review AI Vaccination : There is No Effective AI Vaccine

Jakarta, Kompas – The use of avian influenza vaccines in poultry should be reviewed. This is because it turned out that vaccination could not effectively kill viruses within the bird’s body, thus could not control the spread of viruses to human.
As presented in previous articles in Kompas, hundreds of farmers, members of the Indonesian Native Chicken Farmer Association (Himpuli), had stopped AI vaccination in their birds. This was because a study done by Non Government Organization CIVAS had showed that vaccination in native chickens could not significantly increase the birds’ immunity.

A similar result was also acquired by a researcher from the Tropical Disease Diagnostic Center of Airlangga University, CA Nidom, DVM. In his research, they compared AI vaccinated chickens with non-AI vaccinated chickens. After the chickens were exposed to AI viruses, non-vaccinated chickens immediately died while vaccinated chickens look healthy and had antibodies.
But, it turns out that the feces of vaccinated chickens were positive for AI viruses until the sixth day or last day of the laboratory examination. “From the aspect of virus exposure to human, vaccination is useless, but it could prevent death in birds,” said Nidom on Tuesday (6/1).
“This has caused concern in the public, including farmers, because there is no early sign of infection,” he said. In early cases, AI infections were identified from high bird mortality.
A study of 500 samples of chickens from traditional markets in Surabaya in 2008 showed that there is one H5N1 virus with potential of human infection. After it was isolated, the virus was identified to be more virulent than previous viruses. “So, careless use of vaccine could increase the virulency of viruses,” he said.
Divert funds
Therefore, the government should divert all vaccination funds for compensating farmers if any of their birds died because of avian influenza. “What needs to be done is national surveillance of AI to map AI infected areas,” he said.
Besides that, restructure of the poultry industry is very urgent. Several of the issues are to prohibit the sale of live chickens in markets, control poultry traffic between areas, and prohibit poultry farms in residential areas. “Avian influenza control should be at a national scale,” said Nidom.
None is effective
Director General of Livestock from the Ministry of Agriculture, Tjeppy D Soedjana, admitted that until now, the government does not have an AI vaccine that could effectively eradicate the disease. “The government has taken all the necessary measures, including collaborate with OIE reference laboratories to develop vaccines from field isolates,” he said. Regarding on when the vaccines would be finished, it all depends on the hard work of OIE-FAO.
Standing Animal Health Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agus Wiyono, said that the current AI vaccines are effective enough.
AI mitigation in Indonesia has become quite complex with many variants of the virus depending on the location. There are some viruses that serologically had mutated further or more virulently, but there are also some viruses that are still not too far away – and are currently used as the master seed of vaccines. (EVY/MAS)
Source : Kompas