ST. PETERSBURG, July 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia could have its first peroral vaccine for birds against the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza by the end of this year, the head of an institute working on the vaccine said Wednesday.

Eduard Dzhavadov, the director of St. Petersburg's Veterinary Institute of Poultry Breeding, said the vaccine being developed by his organization and the Influenza Research Institute is to be administered with food and water rather than intravenously.

"The Influenza Institute is working directly with the H5N1 virus. In July, we expect them to provide us with a strain on whose basis our institute will be developing the vaccine," Dzhavadov said.

He said peroral vaccines took much less time to administer than those intended for intramuscular injection, meaning a large poultry farm could be immunized within just half an hour.

Russia started a mass vaccination campaign of domestic fowl in March. More than a million birds have died of bird flu since the latest wave of the virus hit the country in February.