France slashed bird flu outbreaks by vaccinating ducks
A vaccination campaign targeting ducks, the farm birds most at risk of getting and spreading the virus, succeeded in greatly reducing outbreaks of bird flu on poultry farms in France
A duck getting its flu jab at a French farm in November 2023 Shutterstock/Leitenberge?r Photography
France would have had hundreds of outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu on poultry farms in the past year had it not vaccinated ducks against the disease for the first time, according to a modelling study. Instead, there were just 10.
?The conclusion is that vaccination made a huge difference,? says Timoth?e Vergne at the University of Toulouse, France.
While bird flu vaccines for poultry have long been used in some countries in?