A University of North Dakota
scientist says an antibody to protect poultry from avian influenza could
be on the market within a year.
David Bradley, the lead researcher
on the project at UND, said the avian influenza antibodies are created
by geese and harvested from the goose eggs.
Bradley said treatment would slow
the spread of avian influenza outbreaks and reduce the economic impact
to farmers.
"Right now, when there's an avian
influenza outbreak, they certainly kill all of the flocks immediately,"
he said. "In some cases, they kill all of the birds within in a
five-mile radius of the infected birds. We would hopefully have a
mechanism to treat those birds, probably not in the infected population
but those in the surrounding radius."
Bradley said the final step is
testing the antibodies in a biosecure lab to make sure they are safe and
effective in treating live poultry.
He said the goal is to offer protection against the most common avian influenza viruses.
"We have evidence that these avian
antibodies can be stored and kept on the shelf for at least five years,"
he said. "So we would be making assessments and making antibodies for
those things that would be most likely to occur and stockpiling."
A $700,000 grant from the North
Dakota Department of Commerce will help fund the final research.
Bradley said the antibody treatment
for poultry will have an international market and will be produced by
Avianax, a company in Grand Forks, N.D., that is also developing goose
antibodies to treat humans for diseases like West Nile Virus and
influenza.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/12/31/health/poultry-avian-flu-antibody/
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