The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), in a major research breakthrough, has developed an indigenous vaccine against bird flu. This was announced by India's Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, at the 77th Annual General Meeting of the ICAR Society in New Delhi . India had seen the outbreak of bird flu, also known as avian influenza, in February. It had badly affected the poultry industry.

"Viral diseases like avian influenza do not recognise national boundaries, which is why the development of an indigenous vaccine will go a long way in tackling bird flu effectively. Since the disease can keep recurring, further research would focus on developing other vaccine types," Mangla Rai, the Director General of the premier agricultural research organisation said.

ICAR had decided to develop a 'killed' vaccine locally against bird flu and allocated Rs 80 million for the project immediately after the bird flu outbreak. Bhopal's High Security Animal Disease Laboratory had produced the vaccine in a record four months. The lab is India's only facility with the capability of conducting tests for the H5N1 variant of bird flu. Till now, India was importing the vaccine.

Rai also said that an ICAR committee charged with preparing Guidelines for Intellectual Property Management and Commercialisation of Technologies had prepared its report after taking cognizance of national and international legal frameworks. It is going to be discussed at the forthcoming ICAR Governing Body meeting on September 19, 2006. The committee's brief was to assess the rapid developments in intellectual property rights, benefit sharing in agriculture, increasing role of private sector in agricultural research and development, and to share gains from commercialisation in the ICAR system.

Pawar spoke on the country's food grains scenario and underlined the fact that though the area under cultivation had remained stagnant at around 125 million hectares for the last 25 years, the increase in production has been achieved mainly as a result of productivity enhancement from 522 kg/ha in 1950-51 to over 1,700 kg/ha in 2005. He attributed this increase to the development and adoption of improved high yielding varieties that are resistant to diseases and pests.