Scientists developing mRNA-based vaccine against H5N1 bird flu

An experimental mRNA vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu is highly effective in preventing severe illness and death in lab animals, researchers report. The vaccine could help fight the H5N1 bird flu outbreaks now spreading in wild birds, poultry and cows in the United States, researchers said. Stopping those outbreaks is key to preventing the H5N1 flu from leaping into humans, researchers said. The vaccine was created using the same techniques that produced the COVID vaccines. “The mRNA technology allows us to be much more agile in developing vaccines; we can start creating a mRNA vaccine within hours of sequencing a new viral strain with pandemic potential,” said senior researcher Scott Hensley, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, in Philadelphia. “During previous influenza pandemics, like the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, vaccines were difficult to manufacture and did not become available until after the initial pandemic waves subsided,” Hensley added...