Researchers at the University of Guelph are in search of a vaccine capable of protecting birds from the avian flu.

Fatemeh Fazel and her team are working on an mRNA vaccine.

She said the mRNA platform is highly adaptable, which makes it well-suited for a virus that is able to rapidly mutate.

“This is great a tool we can develop to control the virus,” Fazel said.

She said this is her first time working on the mRNA vaccine, even though it has been around for three decades.

Fazel came to Canada from Iran in 2021 to complete her PhD in pathobiology under one of the lead bird flu researchers, Shayan Sharif.

Sharif said you can make adjustments with the mRNA vaccine instead of “starting from scratch.”

“You make adjustments for a new virus, and your mRNA vaccine becomes suitable for a new strain,” he said.

Fazel said they’re trying to optimize the vaccine for nasal administration to make it easier to vaccinate larger poultry flocks on farms. The vaccine platforms can also be injected straight into eggs, days before they hatch.

Her work focuses on a vaccine that’s capable of combating a low pathogenic avian influenza.

Canada does not have a bird flu vaccine for its commercial poultry but emphasizes strategies to monitor outbreaks instead.

Fazel said preliminary results have been positive, but there’s still more work to do.

“We are trying to optimize it and get the better response, but I would say there are many more steps to get to the point that the vaccine be used in commercial farms,” she said.

Based on current technologies, Fazel said the earliest version of the vaccine could become available “within a few months.”

She said the ultimate goal is to control the virus within the chicken population and prevent spread to other susceptible hosts, including humans.

Fazel said they need to stay on top of the changes the virus makes.

“We need to find innovative and creative ways to face it, and I believe this project can be one of those,” she said.

“We just need to keep all the changes this virus makes over time and I think this platform gives us that adaptability and the rapid development that we need for influenza viruses.”