In an effort to protect Canadians from a killer avian flu strain sweeping Southeast Asia, the country's Public Health Agency will launch a clinical trial next year for a vaccine.

The Montreal Gazette reports that the vaccine is part of Canada's flu pandemic preparedness strategy, according to the country's Public Health Agency.

Dr. Arlene King, the agency's director of immunization and respiratory infections, said the vaccine is intended to stimulate an immune response to the H5N1 strain -- described as the biggest threat facing human kind by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Biomedical in Quebec City has been contracted to produce the vaccine, reports the Gazette. Testing on people will be carried out next year after they give their informed consent.

King explained that the trial will also test Canada's production capability.

Currently, Canada's vaccine producers can make 6.5 million doses a month. King said by next year, Canada should be able to produce 8 million doses a month.

Ultimately, Canada's goal is to produce 32 million doses within a four-month period, which would cover the country's entire population in case of a pandemic strain.

After addressing the World Vaccine Congress in Montreal, King said the Public Health Agency doesn't know whether the H5N1 could become a pandemic.

"Unfortunately, we can't look in the crystal ball and figure out which strain it's going to be," she said.

H5N1 has killed at least 51 people in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam since it first emerged in the region's poultry farms in late 2003.

Yesterday, a 20-year-old Cambodian woman suspected of contracting bird flu died in a hospital in southern Vietnam.

She was admitted to hospital with a serious lung infection and was hooked up to a respirator, but died later in the day.

There are suspicions the virus has jumped from chickens and is now communicable between humans.

U.S. trial

Last month, U.S. health officials began tests on 450 adults of an avian flu vaccine in order to determine its safety.

The vaccine was made from an inactivated H5N1 strain isolated in 2004.

"If the vaccine is shown to be safe in adults, there are plans to test it in other populations, such as the elderly and children," said the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"While there have been relatively few cases worldwide of H5N1 avian influenza infection in humans, the public health community is concerned that the virus will develop the capability of efficiently spreading from human to human and thus create a risk for a worldwide pandemic," said NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci in a statement.