When people have their flu shots this year, they'll partly have the turkeys of Dadswells Bridge to thank for keeping the virus at bay.
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Representatives of Seqirus, a company manufacturing and distributing flu vaccines, have travelled from Melbourne to breeder and farmer Daryl Deutscher's door for the past 15 years, to take some of his animals to play a part in the development of new vaccines.
Mr Deutscher said he believed he had been approached because he was one of the few people in the world with a regular supply of rare turkey breeds.
"They have more of the blood cells that the company wants to make the flu vaccine than the more commercially farmed breeds," he said.
"They come twice a year and take on average a dozen turkeys across the year, so it's a very small part of the business, but I think it's significant."
Mr Deutscher said the rare varieties of turkey he farmed included the Bourbon Red and Narraganset.
Seqirus is one of four companies that distributes the flu vaccine across Australia, and the only Australian-based manufacturer of the vaccines.
Jonah Smith, executive director of manufacturing and manager of the Melbourne site, said Seqirus provided the red blood cells to the World Health Organisation's Collaborating Centre.
"(The researchers use the cells) in their laboratories as part of diagnostic testing to measure the differences between emerging and older influenza virus strains," Mr Smith said.
New flu vaccines need to be produced annually because there are new strains of the virus with different surface protein structures every season.
Mr Smith said circulating flu strains new and old have been found to attach to red blood cells from heritage turkeys more readily than those of other species during the testing phase.
This allows researchers to recommend more accurate updates to the composition of vaccines to tackle the new strains.
Mr Smith said a manufacturing audit of all influenza doses distributed in Australia suggested 40 per cent of all Australians received a flu vaccine in 2018.
"Research into improved influenza vaccines is very active at the moment and more new developments are to be expected in the coming years," he said.
A spokeswoman for Seqirus said the blood donation process from turkeys was similar to that of humans, with blood being taken every three to four weeks.
"After 18 months of time with us, the turkeys are then rehomed as domestic pets," she said.
"Every September, the World Health Organisation tells manufacturers what strains need to be going into the vaccine for year ahead.
"Each vaccine has four different vaccines in it recommended by the WHO and approved by the federal government's Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee."
As of last week, Seqirus was preparing to start supply of this year's flu vaccine.
