Finland will begin vaccinating some workers who come into contact with animals against bird flu next week, health officials have announced, making it the first country to do so.

The country has secured vaccines for 10,000 people through a joint procurement effort with the European Union, which includes 40 million doses for 15 countries from Australian manufacturer CSL Seqirus.

CSL Seqirus confirmed to news agency Reuters that Finland would be the first to provide the vaccine.

According to a THL spokesperson, vaccinations will begin in parts of Finland next week. The vaccines will be administered to workers at fur and poultry farms, lab technicians handling bird flu samples, veterinarians working as animal control officers, and people working at wild bird sanctuaries, livestock farms and animal by-product processing plants.

If an avian influenza infection occurs in a human, people in close contact with the suspected or confirmed case will also be vaccinated, THL said.

“The vaccine will be available to people aged 18 years or older who are at higher risk of contracting avian influenza due to their work or circumstances,” the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) said.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has caused hundreds of millions of chickens to die or be culled worldwide, and is spreading rapidly to mammals, including cows in the United States, and in some cases to humans.

Although Finland has not reported any human cases of the virus, the country is keen to begin vaccinations because of the risk of infection from its fur farms.

“In Finland we have fur farms, where animals can come into contact with wildlife,” explains Hanna Nohynek, chief physician at THL.

Last year, Finland suffered a massive outbreak of bird flu among mink and foxes on most of its open-air fur farms, resulting in the culling of around 485,000 animals to prevent further spread.

all about bird flu

Bird flu or avian influenza is widely spread across the world. Of the many types of bird flu, H5N1 is an important type that spreads among birds.

This virus has caused outbreaks in poultry flocks and mammals. The disease is caused by the influenza A virus. Symptoms in birds include diarrhea, difficulty breathing, swelling of the head, and sudden death.

Birds spread the virus to other animals through their saliva, mucus and feces, posing a risk to people and animals. Unprotected contact with infected birds further increases the risk.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms can range from mild, such as cough, headache, sore throat, and fever, to more severe, such as pneumonia, which may require hospitalization.