Animal Influenza Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (HVRI), CAAS and the International Center for Medical Research and Treatment, Tokyo University, Japan have jointly developed a new vaccine for avian influenza: the cold-adapted, live attenuated H5N1 vaccine. 

Tests in mice and rhesus macaques, the nonhuman primate showed that the vaccine provided complete protection in the animals against homologous and heterologous H5N1virus challenge. Its protective efficacy is better than any existing H5 subtype vaccines in the world. 

Production of the live vaccines requires much less chicken embryos and much less time than the traditional inactivated vaccines, which allows large-scale production and massive storage. 

The vaccine is easy to use through internasal delivery.

The research results of the new vaccine was published in May 2009 issue of the PLoS Pathogens, an international journal published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS).