From the mid 1990s onwards, an enormous amount of work has been carried out on the epidemiology, diagnostics and immune prophylaxis of avian influenza together with fundamental research in the field. There have been considerable successes.

Take diagnostic techniques for bird flu for instance. What has been achieved includes:  1) Diagnosis by means of an Agar Gel Precipitation test.  2) Analytical approaches in the field of avian influenza subtype viruses. 3) Diagnosis and test of virions.

In the field of research and development in vaccines against avian influenza, a subtype H5 bird flu inert vaccine has been developed and used for emergency vaccination against subtype H5 HPAI.

An active carrier vaccine intended for use against subtype H5N1 avian influenza recombined chickenpox virus has been developed to the stage of environmental release for safety evaluation.

(China.org.cn February 13, 2004)