rearranged influenza virus, antigenic composition of rearranged influenza virus, vaccine, and methods for eliciting an immune response to at least one pandemic influenza virus strain in an individual, to prevent infection of an individual by an influenza virus, and to prepare a vaccine .
The present invention relates, in general, to materials and methods for production of an improved vaccine against influenza virus, wherein the vaccine comprises a reassortant virus having a hemagglutinin gene and a neuraminidase gene from the same influenza A virus subtype or influenza B strain of virus and internal genes from a different influenza A virus subtype or influenza B strain of virus. In one aspect, the HA and NA genes and the internal genes are from a highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of influenza A.
