USDA: Bird flu vaccine not good enough for outbreak
Source: AP
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A bird flu vaccine doesn't work well enough to approve it for emergency use against the current outbreak that's shaken the Midwest poultry industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.
The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in a statement Wednesday that the current vaccine is not well matched against the highly pathogenic H5N2 virus and doesn't provide enough protection.
"The vaccine currently available offers just 60 percent effectiveness in chickens, leaving 4 in 10 birds unprotected. The vaccine's effectiveness in turkeys is still being studied," it said.
By the USDA's count, bird flu has cost chicken and turkey producers more than 45 million birds since early March, mostly in Iowa and Minnesota.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cd15e091e8324fe780265f6951b88695/usda-bird-flu-vaccine-not-good-enough-outbreak
Egg and fowl prices are up in the midwest. Yesterday a chain of 700+ stores announced they were cutting the hours for breakfast because of shortages and price increases.
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