Vaccinating birds in AI outbreak can eradicate the disease and provide sterilizing immunity.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not sure
• D. Not applicable

Answer: (B)

Vaccination can reduce disease severity and sometimes lower viral shedding, but it does not automatically eradicate avian influenza or provide sterilizing immunity. In practice, many AI vaccines do not create complete protection against infection; birds may still become infected and shed virus even when vaccinated if the field strain differs from the vaccine strain or if immunity wanes. Eradication requires stopping transmission across all hosts and settings, including wild birds and densely populated poultry operations, which is extremely difficult to achieve with vaccination alone. Surveillance challenges, the possibility of silent infections, and gaps in vaccine coverage all mean that vaccination helps control illness but does not guarantee elimination or sterilizing immunity.