Russian scientists develop new H5N1 avian influenza vaccine

Key Highlights

• Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza.
• Highly pathogenic H5N1 continues to circulate worldwide, causing mass mortality among domestic and wild birds and significant economic losses.
• Its high variability and ability to cross species barriers reduce the effectiveness of older vaccines that do not match circulating strains, it said.
• The scientists used reverse genetics to engineer the virus.
• Genes encoding hemagglutinin and neuraminidase from an H5N1 virus isolated from a black-headed gull in 2023 were modified to reduce pathogenicity and combined with genes from a safe laboratory H1N1 strain, producing a hybrid virus that replicates efficiently in chicken embryos.