Vectored Vaccines for Avian Influenza Cases of avian influenza
infections of poultry and humans have caused the world to be on
alert for a pandemic. Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
veterinary medical officer and laboratory director David Swayne
and his team at the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in
Athens, Georgia, are developing new viral-vectored vaccines to
facilitate vaccine efficiency against avian influenza. A vector
is a biological carrier of genes of another pathogen. Vectors
such as the turkey herpesvirus, infectious laryngotracheitis
virus, and adenoviruses are being used and could allow mass
application of vaccine. Development of new vaccines will help to
protect birds and humans in the event of an outbreak of avian
influenza in the United States. “Mass-application technologies,
like a spray or in ovo injection, for new viral or bacterial
vector systems will provide economic incentives for adoption
over current labor-intensive, manual, individual-bird injection
methods used today,” says S