On March 4, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations held a ceremony to designate the Animal Influenza Laboratory at the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences (HVRI-CAAS) to be the Reference Center for Animal Influenza of the UN organization. China’s Chief Veterinary Officer Yu Kangzhen and the FAO counterpart Juan Luborth attended the ceremony.


HVRI, a cutting edge veterinary research institute of the CAAS, has produced a number of high quality diagnostics and vaccines against influenza viruses. Vaccines currently developed and produced at the Institute are used in China and Southeast Asia to control highly pathogenic avian influenza, the disease that has resulted in the loss of more than 400 million birds and the deaths of some 500 people.

This is the first FAO reference center in China and the first FAO reference center for animal influenza in Asia.