As Avian Influenza As the outbreak continues to spread south of the border, Canadian officials are working with several pharmaceutical companies to produce a Avian Influenza Human vaccines.
There is currently no avian influenza vaccine available to the public in Canada. According to the Health Canada websiteCanada also currently has no stockpile of human avian flu vaccines, but federal health officials say that could change in the future.
“The Public Health Agency of Canada has proactively met with pandemic influenza vaccine suppliers (such as GlaxoSmithKline, Seqirus and Sanofi) with whom we have domestic or overseas vaccine production agreements to discuss pandemic influenza vaccine preparedness activities to inform measures that can be taken against avian influenza,” a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) told Global News in an email on Friday.
“These activities include obtaining H5N1 candidate vaccine viruses and the potential for producing pre-pandemic vaccines when production capacity for producing seasonal influenza vaccines is freed up.”
Since 2020, the avian influenza virus has spread to more animal species in dozens of countries. In March, the virus was found in dairy cows in the United States, and at least three people have since been diagnosed with avian influenza, all of whom were workers on infected dairy farms, although their illness was milder.
But early versions of the H5N1 flu virus have been highly deadly to humans in other parts of the world. Officials are taking steps to prepare if the virus mutates, making it more deadly or allowing it to spread more easily between people.
While the virus rarely spreads to humans, experts warn that it could mutate, become more contagious and pose a major health threat due to its potential lethality.
“Avian flu has surprised us time and again,” said Kerry Bowman, a professor of bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto. “People didn’t expect it to jump to mammals, and mammals to jump to each other. But look what’s happened now.”
Canada has stepped up its surveillance of avian influenza viruses in dairy cows and milk. As of May 24, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has also confirmed that no avian influenza virus fragments have been found in Canada's milk supply. Test result is negative.
While the risk is likely low and the virus has not yet been detected in Canada, experts like Maxwell Smith, a bioethicist at Western University in London, Ontario, say it's never too early to start preparing for a potential avian flu pandemic.
“Even though the risk of transmission to humans is currently very low, it is much easier and preferable to intervene now,” he told Global News.
“While we have to devote some resources and make a little investment to thinking about these issues now, it's much better to do that now than to address the problems that will arise if an H5N1 human pandemic occurs.”
'We need a vaccine'
One lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that we never want to be too late to prepare for a potential pandemic, warns Dr. Shajan Sharif, an avian immunologist and vice-president of research at the University of Guelph.
“Should we consider (a vaccine)? Yes, of course. It's always good to be prepared,” he said. “This virus is not a pandemic yet, and we want to make sure it never becomes a pandemic. But if it does become a pandemic, then we'll need a vaccine, and it'll need to be tested for safety and efficacy. All of that will take some time, and we want to be prepared for that possibility.”
He added that while it will take time to distribute vaccines within Canada, if we've learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's that vaccinating people in just one country won't be enough to eradicate the disease.
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“It's going to have to be a global effort to vaccinate nearly every person on the planet. So we need to have a plan in place to vaccinate not only Canadians, but the entire world,” Sharif said.
Bowman mentioned that Canada has the infrastructure to produce these vaccines, but it has not yet started.
One reason, he stressed, is that doing so would disrupt production of seasonal flu vaccines for 2024 and 2025, which are critical to Canadians.
“If we go all in on mass production, then the flu vaccine preparations for late 24-25 will be disrupted,” Bowman said. “We won’t have enough capacity (to produce both vaccines at the same time).”
Another hurdle for the vaccine is making sure it protects against the current H5N1 strain, which could mutate again. Like influenza viruses, avian flu viruses can rapidly change genetically through mutation.
What is the position of other countries?
The U.S. government has stockpiled an H5N1 vaccine and has formed partnerships with three pharmaceutical companies: GlaxoSmithKline, CSL Warning and SanofiThe companies have seasonal flu vaccine production capacity and said they would be able to expand avian flu vaccine production if needed. According to the Associated Press.
On May 30, CSL Seqirus announced that it was preparing to produce and deliver approximately 4.8 million doses of a pre-pandemic vaccine that is “closely matched to H5 of the currently circulating H5N1 strain.” This is expected to be completed by late summer 2024.
North Carolina-based CSL Seqirus produces an FDA-approved cell-based H5N1 vaccine called Audenz.
Pharmaceutical company Moderna has developed an avian flu mRNA vaccine that is already in very early human trials. According to the Associated Press, Moderna confirmed in a statement that “we are in discussions with the U.S. government to advance our pandemic flu vaccine candidate.”
These messenger RNA vaccines are made using a small portion of the virus’ genetic material. The genetic blueprint is designed to teach the body how to make proteins used to boost immunity.
Pfizer is doing similar work. In December, company researchers vaccinated human volunteers with an mRNA vaccine that fights a strain of bird flu that is similar (but not identical) to the strain found in cows. Afterward, researchers conducted a lab experiment exposing blood samples from those volunteers to the strain found in dairy farms and found a significant increase in antibody responses, Pfizer told the AP.
WHO says billions of vaccines can be produced
If an avian influenza pandemic breaks out, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is ready to launch and scale up the production of vaccines against the virus at any time.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic preparedness at the World Health Organization, said at a press conference on May 8 that although no cases of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus have been found, a corresponding prevention and control system has been established.
“Through these systems, there can be a continuous risk assessment of the virus, looking at the virus itself, the different variants, and the characteristics of the virus. Through this system, recommendations can be made for candidate vaccine viruses to be considered for production,” she explained.
“Within the system, we have two H5N1 viruses that we can use to increase vaccine production. We have not yet activated the system.”
However, she added that WHO has real-time access to the production of these avian influenza vaccines and that once production starts, “billions of doses could be produced in the first year if necessary,” given the production technology we have now. “
When asked why there is no vaccine now, Dr. Michael Ryan, who leads the WHO's response to disease outbreaks, explained that while vaccine candidates are available, they must work against current strains of the virus.
He added that producing billions of doses of avian flu vaccine would hamper the production of flu vaccines.
“We make hundreds of millions of doses of seasonal flu vaccine every year, and if production doesn’t go well, we have to switch production. So you can’t just push a button and start making a pandemic H5 vaccine. You have to stop making your seasonal vaccine,” Ryan said. “That requires very careful consideration.”
— With files from The Associated Press and Katherine Ward of Global News
