The Department of Agriculture says it has developed a bird flu vaccine that is 100 percent effective for chickens.
Midwest poultry producers had to kill millions of chickens and turkeys in the wake of an avian flu outbreak this spring.
U.S. Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Tuesday that the vaccine is undergoing further tests.
“I’ll tell you we are in a much better space than we were say six months ago, or six weeks ago when all we had a vaccine that was 60 percent effective. And that’s really not good enough,” Vilsack says.
An avian flu vaccine could complicate international trade since some countries won’t import poultry products from inoculated birds.
Sarah Boden is a reporter with Harvest Public Media.