Bird Flu Vaccine Is in the Pipeline
Published: Friday, March 6, 2026
Research trials for a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza vaccine began in early February, according to speakers at the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum on Feb. 19 in Arlington, Va. The vaccine, and controversies around it, along with stronger, faster HPAI detection tools were the topics of conversation during the Thursday afternoon session.
Among the speakers were Chelsey Shivley of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Laura Miller of Kansas State University, Scott Sundberg of Canon Virginia Inc. and Sergio Ribeiro of Radiolife Co.
Shively opened the topic with an overview of the HPAI situation and the Poultry Innovation Grand Challenge, noting that the current strategy for managing the bird flu is depopulation. The Poultry Innovation Grand Challenge is the result of an $11 billion USDA plan with $100 million designated for vaccine and HPAI combatants research.
"There are no HPAI vaccines authorized for use at this time," Shively said.
However, researchers are now developing vaccines, along with therapeutics, for use against HPAI. Of the $100 million designated to research HPAI, $32 million was designated to vaccine research and $26 million was reserved for therapeutics. The rest went to general research efforts for understanding HPAI.
Shively said APHIS has funded 58 projects focused on one of the three research areas. Projects include research on environmental surveillance, barn-to-barn and farm-to-farm risk, the impact of air handlers, catmint mist and antivirals, and more. As of February, all 58 projects have been implemented.
When asked how soon a vaccine could be expected, Shively said it is unclear due to trade partnerships if it would be adopted, but if all "goes to plan," the research trials would end in three years, opening up the opportunity to implement it shortly after, following market research.
However, there is some pushback. In a February 2025 letter to the USDA, the Congressional Chicken Caucus opposed the administration of a vaccine due to trade concerns.
"Vaccination in any poultry sector—egg layers, turkeys, broilers or ducks—will jeopardize the entire export market for all U.S. poultry products," the caucus stated in their letter. "A widescale HPAI vaccination program in the U.S., without first strengthening our health trade agreements, could cause our trading partners to take action that would significantly harm our domestic poultry sector."
Miller has been leading research in viral disease control at KSU since 2023. She believes a feed-based vaccine is the best form of control for the H5N1 virus (HPAI).
"We can identify protective antigens, because that's what we're looking for to make a vaccine. We have different approaches with those protective antigens on how to do the vaccine," she said.
Approaches include: naturally attenuated, rationally attenuated, RNA, DNA and more. Also to be considered is how the vaccine is administered.
Miller said handling the birds individually to give an injected vaccine causes stress on the animal and increasing risk of transferring disease through touch.
"Using traditional vaccines, we find we fall short because of that rapid mutation we see," Miller said.
The vaccine administration type Miller said is most efficient is through CRSPR engineered insect feed. Using the red flower beetle larvae and yellow mealworm scientists can incorporate the necessary antigens in the feed of the birds and administer it without handling them.
"They're a quite an efficient, economical and healthy product to use," Miller added.
She continued to say the insect-delivered vaccines minimize human entry in the barn, offering a boost in biosecurity.
In addition to offering a more secure vaccine administration method, Miller said the CRSPR engineered worms represent an emerging market, with an estimated $8 billion market by 2030 for animal feed insect farming.
Sundberg introduced a new molecular diagnostics program developed by Canon which can produce HPAI test results in less than 20 minutes. He noted that while the tests give faster results than official diagnostics can, it is "a supplemental testing tool," meant to give indications about the next course of action and not a replacement test.
Ribiero introduced a new HPAI detection tool, which is currently under study. The tool uses radio frequency (RF) to detect HPAI in flocks.
"The current 24- or 48-hour testing timeline simply cannot contain the spread," he said.
However, he said the RF detector is constant, offering monitoring and alerts in "real time." Ribiero added that the technology will "be ready to roll out nationally" by the end of the three-year research period.
"RF starts with HPAI, but it can be applied to other diseases," he said. "Transforming the future requires us to stop fighting diseases with yesterday's tools."
All three research projects are a part of the Poultry Innovation Grand Challenge grant program. They represent a sample of the research being done to combat the HPAI outbreak.
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