Merck says its vaccine against bronchitis in chickens has been approved by the Chinese agriculture ministry for use in the world’s largest chicken-rearing country, which is home to more than 5-billion birds.
Any chicks that hatch today can be vaccinated from Thursday, with the live vaccine formulation suitable for chickens aged one day and above, the US company said on Wednesday.
The vaccine targets infectious chicken bronchitis strain 4-91, a highly contagious chicken coronavirus first identified in Britain in the early 1990s.
Side effects of chicken bronchitis typically include reduced egg production and coughing, according to the US National Institutes of Health research institute.
Chicken bronchitis has a “high mutation rate and rapid transmission”, Zhang Guozhong, a professor at China Agricultural University, said in the statement, warning of “severe and complex” epidemic risks across flocks.
Reuters