Updated bird flu vaccine for poultry gets license

• Health officials in Ohio and Wyoming last week reported the third and fourth U.S. cases of people being hospitalized with H5N1. The overwhelming majority of human cases to date have been linked to direct exposure to sick animals.

Driving the news: The USDA gave Zoetis a conditional license for an updated version of a vaccine developed in 2001-02, when there were large avian flu outbreaks in flocks in Southeast Asia.

• The license "was granted on the demonstration of safety, purity and reasonable expectation of efficacy," the company said.
• Federal officials created a national avian flu vaccine stockpile for use in commercial poultry after outbreaks in 2014 and 2015, though the vaccines were never deployed.
• The USDA said last month it isn't planning immediate vaccination of flocks but is moving forward with the planning and purchase of vaccine or manufacturing capacity for vaccine.

The Biden administration in January gave Moderna $590 million to help develop an mRNA vaccine for H5N1 in people that matches the strains circulating in cows and birds.