Scientists in China have developed a bird flu vaccine for poultry and mammals that can fend off the deadly virus and help stop its spread, the China Daily newspaper said on Monday.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 45 people in Asia in the last year, including 13 in Vietnam in the past month, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has urged “all possible measures” to prevent the emergence of the disease in China.

Although there have been no outbreaks reported in China so far this year, some places were not prepared for a possible outbreak, Xinhua said last month.

The Agriculture Ministry said the new vaccine could “cut a key link in the transmission chain”, the newspaper reported.

Using a technique called reverse genetics, researchers at the Key Laboratory of Animal Influenza, affiliated with the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, altered the genome sequence of the virus to create the vaccine, the newspaper said.

“Laboratory tests show the vaccine enables ducks and geese to fight H5N1, the highly lethal strain of bird flu, three weeks after the flocks were vaccinated,” it said, quoting a ministry statement.

“The new vaccine also provides at least 10 months of protection for chickens - four months longer than the existing bird flu preventive drugs.”

It would help “overcome a bottleneck in the technology of developing a remedy”, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said the vaccine was believed to be safe for both poultry and mammals, but did not elaborate.

Field tests showed that after two shots of the vaccine, ducks and geese can produce antibodies effective for 10 months and three months, respectively, it said.