In response to the culling of more than a million chickens across India, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) allotted $1.8 million to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory for the development of an indigenous H5N1 vaccine for poultry. In his announcement, Pawar congratulated the scientists who developed the vaccine, and said it would be released at "an appropriate time."
Before development of the vaccine, India relied on vaccines from the Netherlands to help curtail bird flu deaths. Since February's outbreak, cullings had resulted in huge losses for Indian poultry farmers.
"The indigenous vaccine would go a long way in tackling bird flu effectively," said Dr. Mangala Rai, ICAR director general. He hopes introduction of the vaccine can rid the country of bird flu within just six months.
Although there have been no confirmed human cases of bird flu in India yet, the World Health Organization reports that it has killed 132 people worldwide since 2003. Scientists still fear that H5N1 could mutate into a form easily transmitted between human beings.
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