Russia could begin large-scale production of a vaccine to prevent bird flu by April, a senior official from the Russian Flu Research Center said Thursday.

Center director Oleg Kiselyov told a news conference: “We need to complete our tests [on the vaccine] … I hope it will be in production in April.”

Kiselyov said that he believed the world could potentially see a major, wide-scale outbreak of bird flu within the next couple of years. Developing a vaccine against such a pandemic strain of the virus would take about nine months, he said.

The Russian Ministry of Agriculture has been coordinating the production of 100 million doses of the vaccine for domestic fowl in Siberia, and regions of the Urals Federal District, which are close to stopover sites used by migrating birds, according to Federal Consumer Rights and Welfare Service chief Gennady Onishchenko. Vaccinations will begin in spring, when young birds appear, he added.

Onishchenko said the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, had approved an increase in funds for bird-flu-related programs, although no precise sum had been set.

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