A small Ottawa company is using a new technique to create a potential vaccine against avian flu.

The company, Variation Biotechnologies Inc., is in the final stages of testing its vaccine on chickens, which act as the laboratory guinea pigs for the virus.

Most flu vaccine is grown in hens' eggs, but the company is using a different approach they developed in the lab at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and the National Research Council.

Vaccine manufacturers try to match each year's supply to the strain most likely to cause outbreaks, which can be a slow, hit-and-miss process.

Virologist Francisco Diaz-Mitoma and his team studied the genetic makeup of the virus to focus on its vulnerabilities. They then developed a serum they think is most likely to defeat the H5N1 strain of avian flu.

"We are designing an adaptable vaccine, a vaccine that represents the future permutations and changes the virus will have," said Diaz-Mitoma.

The vaccinated chickens will be sent to Winnipeg where the birds will be exposed to the deadly avian flu virus. Diaz-Mitoma's team hopes the serum helps the birds to survive.

"Certainly, preliminary results using mice for instance, would indicate there is a level of immunity produced by this vaccine," said Dr. Paul Kitching of the Canadian Food Inspection laboratory in Winnipeg.

"But putting it into the natural host, the chicken, we don't know what this is going to do. We might have to change the vaccine around a bit, to modify it."

A handful of other labs around the world, including major pharmaceutical companies, are also trying to find a vaccine against H5N1.

It will be the end of January before Diaz-Mitoma knows if his vaccine successfully prevents chickens from getting sick. Several years of more work will be needed to develop and perfect the vaccine for people.