Re: ABC Science: vaccines combine to create deadly virus

July 14, 2012

Oh me, oh my...scary stuff!

Olala ! Let me venture a guess that this won't make

front page news…

Australian scientists have found that two different

vaccines used to control an infectious disease in chickens

can recombine to create new lethal virus strains.

The research, to be published today in the journal Science, has prompted

authorities to review vaccine use in animals.

But the scientists, from the University

of Melbourne, say the findings are not only

important for vaccines in chickens, but also for any

vaccine which might be able to multiply - including

those used in humans.

Chicken respiratory virus ILT can lead to birds dying

in a pool of bloody mucus, but vaccines that were meant

to protect them have instead led to their deaths.

Dr Joanne Devlin, a lecturer in Veterinary Public

Health-Epidemiology at the Asia-Pacific Centre for

Animal Health, says the deaths were caused when two

vaccines used to treat the virus combined.

"These new strains were formed by recombination from

the different vaccine strains and that they were

actually more virulent than the vaccine strains that

gave rise to them," she says.

"This is something we've never before seen before in

the field."

Live vaccines, where a weaker version of the virus is

introduced to allow the immune system to build up its

own defences, are quite commonly used for animals and

humans, and include polio, measles, mumps, rubella,

chicken pox and rabies.

…

No virus

found in this message.

Checked by AVG - www.avg.com

Version: 2012.0.2195 / Virus Database: 2437/5128 - Release Date:

07/12/12

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