Technical Abstract: Historically, vaccination for avian influenza virus (AIV) in poultry has not been routine for either high pathogenicity (HP) AIV or low pathogenicity (LP) AIV although it has been used in some locations in recent years where AIV is present (i.e. vaccine is not used unless there is a known challenge). The H5N1 HPAIV outbreak, which began in China in 1996 and spread outside of China in Asia during 2003 then spread widely in 2006 to Europe and Africa, has elicited the most widespread use of vaccines for HPAIV in poultry. Since 1996, 63 countries have been affected with deaths in over 250 million domestic poultry and/or wild birds. As of this writing (August 2012) most of those countries have eradicated the virus and have not experienced new incursions since. Currently, the virus is considered to be enzootic in China (including Hong Kong SAR), Bangladesh, eastern India, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Egypt. Of these countries, China, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Egypt vaccinate routinely. How vaccines have been used for controlling H5N1 HPAIV and strategies for vaccine application have varied substantially among different countries from no vaccine use to attempts to vaccinate 100% of poultry. Here we aim to discuss critical aspects of the field use of AIV vaccines for H5N1 in gallinaceous poultry, the majority of which is in chickens and current research on poultry vaccines for H5N1.