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Mon Oct 1, 8:37 AM ET A vaccine is your first line of defense against the flu. The shot will immunize you against a few strains, but the State Health Department says a new strain can come along and catch everyone off guard. (VACCINES) (FLU PANDEMIC) |
Mon Oct 1, 1:43 AM ET Map shows the distribution of avian, animal, or mosquito infection occurring during 2007 with number of human cases if any, by state. If West Nile virus infection is reported to CDC from any area of a state, that entire state is shaded. (WESTNILE) |
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Mon Oct 1, 8:37 AM ET Contingency planning for the prevention of avian influenza. These guidelines deal specifically with private breeders, and the highly pathogenic strains of the avian influenza virus, in particular the H5N1 strain. (Avian Influenza) (DEFRA) (WPA)
We use the term "susceptible birds" which are defined as any species of bird that is likely to be susceptible to avian influenza and which is not intended for the production of animal products. In effect this means ALL birds that are held by private breeders, no species is known to be unaffected by avian influenza.
Should an outbreak occur in your area, the Secretary of State can establish a restriction area when there is a risk of transmission of the virus to your collection. This enables vet inspectors to serve restriction notices on your collection where susceptible birds are kept.
There are three zones involved, an outbreak within 10km of your collection, which will be within a statutory DEFRA "surveillance zone". Secondly, an outbreak within 3km of your collection is regarded as a statutory DEFRA "protection zone". Finally when the outbreak is within your own collection. |
Mon Oct 1, 8:42 AM ET (Reuters) A woman chooses slaughtered chicken at a slaughter house in Jakarta September 11, 2007. A 21-year-old Indonesian man from West Jakarta has died of bird flu, taking the death toll from the virus to 86, a health ministry official said on Monday. (INDONESIA) |
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Mon Oct 1, 9:21 AM ET More than 230,000 birds have been culled at a poultry farm in Russia's southern Krasnodar Territory following an outbreak of bird flu early September, Russia's agriculture watchdog said Monday. (RIA Novosti) (RUSSIA) Over 230,000 birds culled at farm after bird flu outbreak
A total of 18,000 birds have yet to be culled over the next two or three days, bringing the total to 248,000, the spokesman said. |
AFP/File - Mon Oct 1, 9:30 AM ET China has banned Canadian poultry imports after the discovery of bird flu on a farm in west Canada, Chinese state media said Monday.(AFP/File/Samantha Sin) (CHINA) |
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Mon Oct 1, 8:03 PM ET Flu pandemic attacks chiefly the children, the elderly and the persons who come in contact with large human groups (medical, teaching, administrative staff, etc.), it appears even more clearly that Romania is severely threatened. (ROMANIA) (FLU PANDEMIC)
According to WHO estimates, once the flu pandemic starts, over 30 per cent of the population of a community is attacked by flu within two weeks. |
October 02, 8:45 AM U.S. Customs officials in Minnesota and North Dakota seized more than 4,100 birds from hunters re-entering the United States from Canada following an outbreak of avian flu at a commercial chicken farm near Regina, Saskatchewan. On Thursday, the USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service banned all imports of poultry and unprocessed bird products and customs agents were told the ban included hunter-killed birds.
Bird flu scare prompts border agents to take hunters' birds
U.S. Customs officials in Minnesota and North Dakota seized more than 4,100 birds from hunters re-entering the United States from Canada following an outbreak of avian flu at a commercial chicken farm near Regina, Saskatchewan.
Mike Milne of U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the birds were confiscated at entry points in Warroad, Minn., and Portal and Pembina, N.D.
On Thursday, the USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service banned all imports of poultry and unprocessed bird products and customs agents were told the ban included hunter-killed birds. |
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Oct 2, 2007 9:10 am US/Central On Thursday, the USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service banned all imports of poultry and unprocessed bird products. (File) AP. U.S. Customs officials in Minnesota and North Dakota seized more than 4,100 birds from hunters re-entering the United States from Canada following an outbreak of avian flu at a commercial chicken farm near Regina, Saskatchewan. (USDA) (CANADA)
Hunters Birds Seized At Canada-U.S. Border
Agriculture Department officials rescinded the order on hunter-killed birds late Saturday night after reviewing their protocols. But the move came too late to save the game birds seized from coolers of returning hunters over three days. Milne said the birds were confiscated from hunters in 88 vehicles, each carrying three or four hunters. "We've had to order extra (garbage) trucks," he said. The confiscated birds were sent to landfills. Birds also were confiscated at border crossings in Montana and at Canadian airports. One of the hunters caught by the rules was Mike Borchert, 70, of Le Sueur. He and four friends were returning from a week of hunting in Saskatchewan on Friday when agents confiscated their 215 waterfowl at a North Dakota crossing. "We asked the U.S. custom agents where they were taking them, and they said, 'To the landfill,"' Borchert said. "We were dumbstruck." Not only was the USDA ban disappointing, but one man who was hunting in Saskatchewan at the time called it pointless. |
Oct. 2, 2007 3:07pm ILC Dover technician William Ayrey is seen in a self-contained biosuit in Frederica, Del., Monday Oct. 1, 2007. Suits made by ILC Dover, and other manufacturers, are worn in the highest security level laboratories that work with dangerous germs and toxins. American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing steadily as more labs across the country are approved to do the work. (US) (DE)
More U.S. Labs Mishandling Deadly Germs
(AP) American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing steadily as more labs across the country are approved to do the work. No one died, and regulators said the public was never at risk during these incidents. But the documented cases reflect poorly on procedures and oversight at high-security labs, some of which work with organisms and poisons so dangerous that illnesses they cause have no cure. In some cases, labs have failed to report accidents as required by law. The mishaps include workers bitten or scratched by infected animals, skin cuts, needle sticks and more, according to a review by The Associated Press of confidential reports submitted to federal regulators. They describe accidents involving anthrax, bird flu virus, monkeypox and plague-causing bacteria at 44 labs in 24 states. More than two-dozen incidents were still under investigation. The number of accidents has risen steadily. Through August, the most recent period covered in the reports obtained by the AP, labs reported 36 accidents and lost shipments during 2007 - nearly double the number reported during all of 2004. |
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Tue Oct 2, 9:08 PM ET
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Tue Oct 2, 9:28 PM ET A warehouse manager takes a carton of Tamiflu, which contains the antiviral drug oseltamivir, for packing at a pharmaceuticals storage facility in Singapore March 21, 2007. Sewage systems do not break down Tamiflu, which means the main weapon against bird flu could seep into natural waters and make certain viruses resistant to the drug during a pandemic, Swedish researchers said on Wednesday. (Nicky Loh/Reuters) (Medical News)
Bird flu: Abuse of Tamiflu can create resistant strains, says study
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Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:12 PM PDT Indonesia, the hardest-hit by bird flu, has been ready to use its own anti-bird flu vaccines on human, after the country completed its clinical test, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said in Jakarta Wednesday. She ensured that a priority would be given to the area which had suffered human clusters on avian influenza (INDONESIA)
Indonesia ready to use its own anti-bird flu vaccines
Indonesia, the hardest-hit by bird flu, has been ready to use its own anti-bird flu vaccines on human, after the country completed its clinical test, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said in Jakarta Wednesday.
Minister Fadilah ensured that a priority would be given to the area which had suffered human clusters on avian influenza.
But, she said that a calculation was still needed to determine in detail how to use over 2 million doses vaccines that it has produced in cooperation with the U.S.-based drug maker Baxter.
The minister said that the clinical test of the vaccines was already complete in September. |
Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:26 AM PDT France has lowered the level of risk for bird flu to moderate from high after no new cases of the H5N1 virus were detected in wild birds for the past two months, the agriculture ministry said on Thursday. (FRANCE)
France lowers bird flu risk level to moderate
PARIS, Oct 4 (Reuters) - France has lowered the level of risk for bird flu to moderate from high after no new cases of the H5N1 virus were detected in wild birds for the past two months, the agriculture ministry said on Thursday.
France, Europe's biggest poultry producer, raised its alert to "high" after some wild swans infected with the highly pathogenic virus were found dead in northeastern France in July.
That meant birds and poultry in mainland France had to be locked up or protected by nets to avoid contact with wild birds.
"Surveillance is continuing and it is still necessary for bird owners to maintain their vigilance," the ministry said in a statement. |
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Thu, 04 Oct 2007 8:30 PM PDT Chinese doctors may have found a new approach for treating bird flu: Give bird flu patients plasma from bird flu survivors. (CHINA)
Plasma Fix for Bird Flu?
Blood Plasma From Bird Flu Survivors May Help Other Bird Flu Patients
Oct. 4, 2007 -- Chinese doctors may have found a new approach for treating bird flu: Give bird flu patients plasma from bird flu survivors.
Antibodies in the bird flu survivors' plasma might help bird flu patients recover, the doctors report.
At least, that's what happened when they tried that technique on a Chinese bird flu patient.
The doctors -- who included Boping Zhou, MD, PhD, of the Shenzhen Donghu Hospital in Shenzhen, China -- describe that case in The New England Journal of Medicine. |
Reuters - Thu Oct 4, 9:10 PM ET A worker injects a duckling with the bird flu vaccine at a duck farm following an outbreak of bird flu, in Panyu district of Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong province, September 18, 2007. The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said on Thursday. (Joe Tan/Reuters) (Medical News)
Bird flu virus mutating into human-unfriendly form |
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Thu Oct 4, 11:30 PM ET Globe/T. Rob Brown Howard Pue, with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, presents information Thursday during a meeting that focused on plans for dealing with some future outbreak of bird flu. The session was conducted at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. (Agencies) Health, animal agencies review possible responses to bird flu |
Fri Oct 5, 4:00 AM ET Local husbandry officers slaughter chickens in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra province May 18, 2007. An Indonesian woman suspected of being infected with bird flu died on Friday on the island of Sumatra, a hospital official there said. She lived in a residential complex run by US oil company Caltex. (INDONESIA) |
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Sat Oct. 6, 12:04 AM ET Japanese and Vietnamese scientists have identified a mutation of an H5N1 avian flu virus that can grow in the human upper respiratory tracts. (Medical News) Deadly bird flu virus mutation discovered"Although effective human-to-human transmission of this virus has not yet occurred, the potential of the virus to acquire the ability is evident," said the researchers, who published their findings in the October issue of the U.S. journal PLoS Pathogens, which was released Thursday. The group of nine scientific researchers, led by professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Tokyo, also found that the virus can spread by coughing and sneezing, signaling a potential for human-to-human transmission. "We believe another mutation may be necessary (for the virus) to cause a pandemic," Kawaoka said. "As more humans are infected, the greater the chance that the mutation will evolve." The researchers compared two H5N1-type viruses extracted from the throat and lung of a patient in Vietnam in 2004. They infected a mouse with the virus, and found it tended to grow in the upper respiratory tract, including the throat and nose, where flu viruses usually enter. Researchers also found that the temperature in these parts is about 33, lower than the average temperature of mammals, which is 37. This indicates that this particular mutation allows H5N1 to live in the human upper respiratory tracts that have cooler temperatures. Normally, bird flu does not grow well in the throat or nasal passages of humans. Kawaoka added that scientists need to closely monitor H5N1 avian flu viruses. Last year, Kawaoka and other scientists found another mutation, which allows the virus to infect people more easily, raising the expectation that these findings could help scientists to predict the emergence of new strains. |
Sun Oct. 7, 2:04 AM ET Federal wildlife agents should write a $205,000 ticket to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for wanton waste. That's $50 each - Minnesota's civil penalty - for the 4,100 ducks and geese confiscated from U.S. hunters returning from Saskatchewan, Canada, Sept. 27-29 by U.S. customs agents on the orders of the USDA. It wasn't until Tuesday that APHIS posted its news release on its Web site announcing the ban on hunter-killed birds had been rescinded. Last week, Minnesota's U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman said he was investigating USDA's blundering. Other politicians are sure to follow. (USDA) (APHIS) (Agencies)
USDA should get hefty waterfowl fine for wasting Americans' birds' |
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10/07/2007 02:37:42 AM PDT ILC Dover technician William Ayrey is seen in a self-contained biosuit in Frederica, Del., Monday Oct. 1, 2007. American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003. The University of California has been fined $450,000 for the release of anthrax in September 2005 from a shipped package that was improperly packed by workers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (LAB ACCIDENTS)
UC slapped with $450,000 fine over anthrax release |
Sun Oct. 7, 12:31 PM ET BioVu HD Body Bag, Allows the safe viewing of the deceased in the bodybag without risking being contaminated or being exposed to potential dangers. Experts say Scotland's crematoriums could not cope with the demand of disposing of thousands of dead and temporary body storage would be essential. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal officials and police have been in talks with a major manufacturer of the tents, known as "bouncy castle mortuaries", in an attempt to cope with the death of 64,000 Scots from the virus. The documents also reveal funeral services would have to be cut short because of sheer demand. (Global Epidemic)
'Bouncy castle mortuaries' planned for bird flu dead |
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AFP/File - Mon Oct 8, 12:32 PM ET A roadside vendor with his chickens in Jakarta. A 44-year-old woman from Indonesia's Sumatra island has died of bird flu, raising the toll in the nation worst affected by the disease to 87, the health ministry said Monday.(AFP/File/Jewel Samad) (INDONESIA) |
AFP/File - Tue Oct 9, 12:45 PM ET A chicken is seen in a cage at a farm 08 October 2007. Authorities in a part of southern China close to Hong Kong lifted a quarantine Tuesday that had been imposed on a village after an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu there, state media said.(AFP/File/Ahmad Zamroni) (CHINA) |
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Tue Oct 9, 1:55 PM ET An international grid of more than 41,000 computers is offering new hope in the search for treatments for the deadly avian influenza virus. (EGEE) (Agencies) 41,000 PCs seek bird flu cureThe Enabling Grids for E-science (EGEE) network links ordinary computers in 50 countries to form a single giant supercomputer with more than five million gigabytes of disk and tape storage.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu is known to have killed more than 200 in Asia in the past five years, and scientists fear that it could mutate to cause a deadly global pandemic.
Dr Ying-Ta Wu, a biologist at the Genomics Research Center of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, explained that computing grids are the fastest and cheapest way to find promising new drugs that might be able to battle the virus.
"We are using EGEE to find new molecules that can inhibit the activities of the influenza virus," said Dr Wu. |
Reuters - Sat Oct 13, 2:35 AM ET Chickens gather at a temporary poultry storehouse before they are sent to the market in Jakarta September 15, 2006. A 12-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, taking the total death toll from the disease in the country to 88, a health ministry official said on Saturday. REUTERS/Supri (INDONESIA)
Indonesian boy dies of bird flu |
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Tue Oct.16, 11:31 PM ET Shanghai. October 16. INTERFAX-CHINA - A Chinese health official with the China Center for Disease prevention and Control (China CDC) warned yesterday that China is increasingly at risk of influenza pandemics that could see almost 200 million people infected in China, according to domestic media. (CHINA) Millions at risk as flu pandemic conditions ripen in China, healthofficial warns |
Baltimore, Maryland Thu, 18 Oct 2007 1:39 AM PDT Masked hospital staff quickly checked in and evaluated coughing volunteers during an avian flu simulation at the University of Maryland Medical Center on Wednesday. (MD) (PANDEMIC)
Preparations under way for bird flu season - Baltimore, Md |
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AFP/File - Thu Oct 18, 12:43 PM ET A flock of ducks looks for left seeds on a newly harvested rice field in the northern province of Hung Yen in June 2007. Vietnam's prime minister has reissued a poorly-observed ban on poultry breeding in cities, the government said Thursday, amid fears of new bird flu outbreaks in the coming winter season.(AFP/File/Hoang Dinh Nam) (VIETNAM) |
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Fri Oct 19, 6:34 AM ET The US government's pandemic influenza preparedness plans need to pay more attention to children, especially their need for antiviral drugs and the effects of prolonged school closings, according to a report released today by public health and pediatrics experts. (PANDEMIC FLU)
Report: Pandemic plans need more focus on children & prolonged school closings |
Fri, 19 Oct 2007 7:44 AM PDT Lori Wika, a public health scientist, turns on a new biological safety cabinet in the Siouxland Health and Human Services Building in Sioux Falls. Lab manager Rick Pudwill said the lab is getting equipment calibrated and ready to handle materials that require a biological safety level 3, such as pandemic flu virus. (Photo by Lara Neel / Argus Leader) (PANDEMIC FLU) |
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Though largely unknown and unseen by the public, HSC has served a central role in almost every homeland security policy debate since its inception. Most notably, they led White House efforts to combat the dangers of avian influenza and coordinated the Lessons Learned Report following Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. (HSC) |
Fri, 19 Oct 2007 2:16 AM PDT The federal government's strategy against an influenza pandemic would target high-risk groups, call for schools to dismiss and encourage adults to keep their distance, according to Dr. Kenneth Staley, director for biodefense policy at the White House Homeland Security Council and a University of Iowa Medical School graduate. (HSC) (IA) |
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Fri, 19 Oct 2007 9:38 PM PDT Children and teens account for 46 percent of all H5N1 bird flu deaths, but a report says there are gaps in U.S. child pandemic preparedness
Gaps in U.S. child pandemic preparedness
For example, neither of the two anti-viral drugs shown effective against H5N1 are licensed for children under age 1, and while it is recommended that the public consider using N95 respirator masks in certain circumstances during a pandemic outbreak, these masks are not currently produced in children's sizes. |
Sat Oct 20, 1:02 PM ET Hundreds of birds are being captured, tagged and returned to their settings in Connecticut as part of a national effort to track bird flu. Connecticut is home to 17,000 registered backyard poultry flocks, many of which are free-ranging and could come in contact with wild birds carrying the virus. (CT) |
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Mon, 22 Oct 2007 0:13 AM PDT THE H5N1 strain of bird flu has finally managed to spread from person to person, according to officials of the World Health Organisation. (WHO)
Uganda: Bird Flu Spreads Among Humans - WHO |
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:00 AM PDT Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari confirmed Monday that the death of a 10-year-old girl in Riau Province was caused by bird flu, bringing the total death toll to 89. (INDONESIA)
Indonesia confirms 89th bird flu death |
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Mon Oct 22, 6:40 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deployed military troops, emergency workers, pregnant women and children will be among the first to get scarce vaccinations if a pandemic strain of flu breaks out, U.S. officials said. (HHS)
Troops, key doctors to get first U.S. bird flu shots |
Mon Oct 22, 11:39 PM ET Bird flu "remains a real threat for the humankind and for Russia, in particular," specialists from the St. Petersburg-based National Centre for Influenza of the World Health Organization said on Monday. (RUSSIA) (WHO)
Bird flu remains real threat for world and Russia - specialists |
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Area localities, nonprofits to get pandemic walk-through SAT OCT 27 2007Rustburg High School will be home base for Saturday's drillArea localities, nonprofits and health care providers will take part in a regional pandemic exercise Saturday. The scenario-driven format will test their preparedness when faced with an extended emergency - a pandemic flu that moves through a healthy population of workers, as well as through vulnerable children and the elderly. Saturday's exercise the participants - county administrators, public works, public safety, public information officers, social services staff, health care - will sit at tables grouped according to their areas of expertise. |
Tue Oct 23, 11:04 AM ET Scientific advances have dramatically increased the supply of life-saving flu vaccine that could be used to fight a global pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. (WHO) (VACCINES) |
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AFP - Wed Oct 24, 10:50 AM ET A worker holds a duck at a livestock stall in Jakarta. The UN's top official on bird flu David Nabarro has praised heightened levels of transparency in Asian countries over cases of the disease, but warned that more was need to prepare for a possible pandemic.(AFP/Jewel Samad) (PANDEMIC) |
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Wed, 24 Oct 2007 7:45 PM PDT A five-year-old Indonesian girl has died of bird flu, raising the toll in the nation worst affected by avian flu to 89, the health ministry said Wednesday. (INDONESIA)
A five-year-old Indonesian girl dies of bird flu
"Tests have confirmed that she was positively infected with the H5N1 virus," said a staff member of the health ministry's bird flu information centre who identified himself as Momo.
The girl, Dewi Apriliani, was from Tanggerang, a satellite town just west of Jakarta, and had been admitted to a hospital in the capital on Monday. She died a few hours later, he told AFP.
"She had a history of contact with infected poultry. She had contact with four dead chickens in her neighbourhood, according to her family," Momo added. |
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 3:11 AM PDT MILAN, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Bird flu virus may become endemic in parts of Europe, with ducks and geese more of a vector for spreading it than previously thought, the U.N. said on Thursday. (FAO)
Bird flu may become endemic in parts of Europe-FAO
FAO veterinary experts said they were particularly concerned about the Black Sea area where a high concentration of chickens, ducks and geese is comparable with virus-entrenched Asia.
FAO experts urged the European countries to boost their H5N1 monitoring and surveillance schemes in all regions with big duck and geese production, if it was confirmed that the H5N1 virus can persist in apparently healthy domestic ducks and geese. |
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Thu, 25 Oct 2007 1:22 PM PDT Vietnam has detected a new bird flu outbreak that has killed hundreds of ducks in a central province, the second outbreak found this month in the country, officials said Thursday. (VIETNAM)
Bird flu breaks out again in Vietnam, killing hundreds of ducks |
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Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:22 PM PDT Nurse Patricia Samrow administers a flu shot to Ed Behan of Baton Rouge during a statewide vaccination drill Thursday to test the state's ability to perform mass vaccinations in case of an epidemiological emergency. (PANDEMIC) (US) (LA) |
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:45 PM PDT Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that 73% of avian flu outbreaks in the UK would not spread beyond the initial infected farm, but larger outbreaks are more likely to involve the duck meat industry. (RESEARCH)
Large avian flu outbreaks more likely to involve duck meat industry, experts find
Dr Rob Christley from the University's Faculty of Veterinary Science, explains: "Our model is unique in the level of detail regarding contact points between farms. We modelled four contact routes: local transmission, where infection is spread in the area due to wind and wild animals; transmission via delivery of feed where lorries may pick up the virus at one farm and carry it to another; transmission via slaughterhouse lorries and transmission via company workers, where personnel from a company may carry the virus to other farms within the same company as they go about their daily work. "We have also classified 12,000 farms in the UK according to the species they raise and the purpose of the farm; for example is it a chicken meat farm, chicken egg farm or duck meat" The team modelled each farm detailing who their contacts were - feed mills, slaughter houses and other farms for example. This level of detail helps us predict areas and industry sectors at greatest risk." |
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AP - Fri Oct 26, 6:02 AM ET Chickens are sold at Hom Market in Hanoi, Vietnam, Friday, Oct. 26, 2007. Vietnam has reported a fresh bird flu outbreak, marking the third this month, as officials call for vigilance prior to the winter season when the virus typically flares, a government report said Friday. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki) (VIETNAM) |
Reuters - Mon Oct 29, 9:51 AM ET Chickens are loaded onto a motorcycle ready to be transported in a poultry market in Jakarta, Indonesia March 14, 2007. A three-year-old Indonesian boy has tested positive for bird flu but his life in not in danger, a health ministry official said on Monday. REUTERS/Supri (INDONESIA) |
