03/17 | Daily BF Thread: Study identifies how BF could get foothold in humans

Link to yesterday's thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=189891

Since January, 2004 WHO has reported human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) in the following countries:

* East Asia and the Pacific:
o Cambodia
o China
o Indonesia
o Thailand
o Vietnam

* Europe & Eurasia:
o Turkey

* Near East:
o Iraq
(see preliminary report)

Since December 2003, avian influenza A (H5N1) infections in poultry or wild birds have been reported in the following countries:

* Africa:
o Cameroon
o Niger
o Nigeria

* East Asia & the Pacific:
o Cambodia
o China
o Hong Kong (SARPRC)
o Indonesia
o Japan
o Laos
o Malaysia
o Mongolia
o Myanmar (Burma)
o Thailand
o Vietnam

* Europe & Eurasia:
o Albania
o Austria
o Azerbaijan
o Bosnia & Herzegovina (H5)
o Bulgaria
o Croatia
o France
o Georgia (H5)
o Germany
o Greece
o Hungary
o Italy
o Poland
o Romania
o Russia
o Serbia and Montenegro (H5)
o Slovak Republic
o Slovenia
o Switzerland
o Turkey
o Ukraine

* Near East:
o Egypt
o Iraq (H5)
o Iran

* South Asia:
o India
o Kazakhstan
o Pakistan (H5)


For additional information about these reports, visit the
World Organization for Animal Health Web Site.

Updated March 13, 2006
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/outbreaks/current.htm#animals

WHO, Avian Flu Timeline in .pdf: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/timeline.pdf

Study identifies how bird flu could get foothold in humans​

Peter Gorner

March 16, 2006 5:21 PM
Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO - Although it remains only a potential threat, a possible way for a particularly virulent strain of the avian flu virus H5N1 ''to gain a foothold in the human population'' has been discovered, researchers reported Thursday.

The finding hinges on mutations in the hemagglutinin molecule - the ''H'' in the designation of any flu virus, including the avian influenza virus H5N1. The molecule studs the outer surface of the virus and is the primary target of protective antibodies dispatched by the immune system.

Of the 16 known types of hemagglutinin, only three - H1, H2 and H3 - have been known to cause human disease and were responsible for the last three influenza pandemics, in 1918, 1957 and 1968.

The researchers used new molecular technology to test the effect of various mutations on a bird flu virus isolated from a Vietnamese boy who died in 2004. He was among the few humans worldwide to have contracted the disease.

Two mutations, both found in the viruses that caused the 1957 and 1968 pandemics, caused H5N1 to behave more like a human flu. If those mutations were to crop up naturally in H5N1, it would suggest the current strain of avian flu is evolving into a disease that would be infectious in humans.

The new research, in addition to giving insights about how H5N1 might change, could help workers in the field quickly identify new active virus strains and determine how likely they are to spread to humans, the scientists said.

''With continued outbreaks of the H5N1 virus in poultry and wild birds, further human cases are likely,'' said Ian Wilson, head of the laboratory at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., which conducted the study published in the journal Science.

''The potential for the emergence of a human-adapted H5 virus either by gene reassortment or mutation is a clear threat to public health worldwide.''

Highly contagious and deadly to poultry, bird flu has already caused more than $10 billion in losses to millions of farmers as it has swept across Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

So far, its spread to humans has been limited, with the first human infection reported nine years ago. For a human pandemic to occur, the virus would have to mutate into a form that is easily transmissible from human to human.

Some scientists say they don't see much threat in a virus that in nine years has caused only 177 infections and approximately 100 deaths, most of which have come from direct contact with infected birds.

''Nine years is a long time,'' said James Stevens of Scripps, first author of the Science paper. ''Half the scientific community feels it might never happen. What we suggested in the paper is a kind of potential foothold situation where if it can actually get into the human population, it can undergo further mutations to optimize itself.''

Although the number of human cases is low, the mortality rate in humans is 54 percent and vaccines against H5N1 are being developed worldwide in hopes of preventing a pandemic.

Hemagglutinin in avian flu latches onto different cell receptors than in human flu, which is why most bird flu viruses do not spread among humans. H5N1, for example, has a high affinity for sugars on the surfaces of bird cells but doesn't seem to care about human cells. In order to pass from birds to humans, the virus must mutate enough to change that.

The scientists found that the hemagglutinin found in the virus taken from the Vietnamese boy looked similar to that in the virus that caused the 1918 ''Spanish flu'' pandemic.

For that reason, they thought that introducing a mutation seen in the 1918 virus would increase H5N1's zest for human sugar molecules, but they turned out to be wrong. However, two mutations found in the 1957 and 1968 viruses did have that effect.

The findings ''suggest a path for the H5N1 virus to gain a foothold in the human population,'' the researchers wrote.

The researchers used a technique called functional glycan microarray. Microarrays are small pieces of glass on which several hundred sugar molecules from a bird or a human are stuck. Hemagglutinin proteins are then added to the slides and checked if they bind to the sugar molecules.

Other members of the research team were from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=NATIONAL&ID=564700947433259030

FDIC

US Regulators Ask Banks To Prepare For Flu Pandemic​

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. regulators on Wednesday advised banks and thrifts to be prepared in case the avian flu outbreak becomes a human influenza pandemic.

"Financial institutions and their service providers supply essential financial services and, as such, should consider their preparedness and response strategy for a potential pandemic," according to the advisory from the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision.

On Monday, the International Monetary Fund warned a severe influenza pandemic would likely cause "significant" impact to the global economy. But the IMF cautioned that economic predictions are very uncertain given the unknown severity of a potential pandemic and how well the world prepared for and reacted to it.

The U.S. regulators' advisory asks banks and their technology-service providers to prepare for both a human pandemic "and similar threats in their event response and contingency strategies."

The advisory says banks and their providers should review the White House National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza, released in November. It highlights the strategy's recommendations for infection control in the workplace, offsite working plans, service-delivery contingencies and partnerships with other members of their sector.

The complete national strategy is on the Internet at http:// www.pandemicflu.gov

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/N...eadlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na

Audio.... follow link

Scientists Find How Bird-Flu Virus 'Humanizes'​

Listen to this story... (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5284836) by Richard Knox

All Things Considered, March 16, 2006 ·

Researchers have found that by putting one or two mutations into the H5N1 bird-flu virus, they were able to give it greater ability to slip into human cells. The new information will give virus-trackers something to watch for as H5N1 expands to new territory.

fair use only

Bird Flu Spreads in India, Malaysia; May Have Reached Israel

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu infected farms in India, Malaysia and Nigeria, prompting the culling of thousands of poultry. Israel is investigating dead fowl in a kibbutz in what may be the country's first outbreak of the lethal virus.

Indian officials culled more than 17,000 fowl yesterday in the western state of Maharashtra to contain a second outbreak of avian influenza. Malaysia yesterday reported avian flu in poultry in two areas of the northern state of Perak, prompting neighboring Singapore to suspend imports of poultry. Health workers are checking for human infections in Perak.

``We are going to conduct house-to-house checking'' for any suspected cases, Ramlee Rahmat, director of disease control at Malaysia's Health Ministry said in a telephone interview late yesterday. ``Anybody there with flu symptoms'' who had been in contact with birds or chickens will be hospitalized, he said. (I wonder if the US will do the same Can you imagine having a cold and being forced into a hospital with potential bird flu victims.)

The rate of human infections from the H5N1 strain is increasing as the virus spreads to more parts of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Confirmed infections in Israel would bring to 29 the number of countries this year reporting initial outbreaks in birds.

Outbreaks of H5N1 in fowl increase the risk of human infection and provide more opportunity for the virus to mutate into a pandemic form that may kill millions of people. Scientists have pinpointed changes in the avian influenza virus spreading around the world that might make it contagious in humans, according to a study published in the journal Science.

Since 2003, H5N1 has killed at least 98 of 177 people infected, the World Health Organization said March 13.

Changes in parts of a protein that allows the virus to enter birds' cells may help it invade human lung tissues, said James Stevens, a molecular biologist at the nonprofit Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, who led the study. The results appeared yesterday in the online Science Express.

Israel, Nigeria

In Israel, hundreds of dead fowl were found on a kibbutz, or collective farm, at Ein Hashlosha, about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) east of Gaza and 80 kilometers south of Tel Aviv, Inbal Jacobs, a Health Ministry spokeswoman, said yesterday.

``There is a suspicion of avian influenza in turkeys,'' Jacobs said. ``No people have been infected.''

In Nigeria, which reported H5N1 infections in poultry last month, Africa's first reported outbreak, diseased birds were found in the southwestern state of Ogun, bordering Benin, the government said in a statement on its Web site.

``The culling of infected birds and decontamination of the affected farm is in progress with the cooperation of the Ogun state government,'' Nigeria's Information Minister Frank Nweke Jr. said in the statement. More tests are being undertaken on samples from the diseased birds in a laboratory in Italy, he said.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aEZ_hVmW9a24&refer=top_world_news

30,000 bird-flu deaths in 24 hours in Russia

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060316/44383584.html
(fair use applies)

30,000 bird-flu deaths in south Russia in last 24 hours - ministry
10:25 | 16/ 03/ 2006

ROSTOV-ON-DON, March 16 (RIA Novosti, Sergei Rudkovsky) - More than 30,000 birds have died of bird flu in southern Russia over the last 24 hours, a local emergencies ministry official said Thursday.

"In Krasnodar Territory, 21,912 chickens have died over the last 24 hours, and the total number of dead birds has reached 350,288," the official said.

A further 10,818 birds have died over the last 242 hours in the North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, the official said, bringing the total including culled birds to 760,000.

A third wave of bird flu struck Russia starting February 3. The country's southern regions, where all cases in the country have so far been registered, are particularly vulnerable as a stopover for migrating birds. A vaccination program is currently underway in many of the country's regions.

No human deaths from bird flu have so far been registered in Russia

India update.........

fair use only

Culling of chickens in Jalgaon continues for second day
Jalgaon (Maharashtra): The culling of chickens in Maharashtra's bird flu-hit Jalgaon district is continuing for the second day on Friday, with about 75,000 chickens are expected to be culled by the end of the day.

Nearly 29,000 chickens were culled till 5.20 p.m. yesterday. The mopping is expected to continue for a week as tests confirmed the country's second outbreak of avian influenza in poultry was the deadly H5N1 strain.

Central animal husbandry officials had yesterday said that 200-kilometer radius of the flu-hit area was being checked for the virus.

"We decided that in addition to the surveillance, which we had mounted, we will step it up further. We will do it even more aggressively than we were doing. And we have earmarked these 38 districts in 200 kilometres radius for a quick check. Upma Chaudhury, Joint Secretary in the animal husbandry department, had said.

In Maharashtra, where bird flu resurfaced this week in backyard poultry, officials said there was no time for niceties and the birds had to be killed fast.

Veterinary and civic workers, wearing protective gear, yesterday moved door-to-door collecting chickens and eggs after paying owners 40 rupees (90 cents) for every bird as compensation.

The birds had their necks twisted and were then stuffed in black plastic bags and buried in shallow pits. Disinfectants and lime powder were then sprinkled over the graves.

Authorities said the latest outbreak -- in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra-- was the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza that has killed about 100 people, most of them in Asia. However, there have been no reports of human infections in India.

Health authorities said they were not taking any chances and had sent dozens of medical teams looking for people with flu-like symptoms to every household of the affected area.

Hundreds of people in a nearby area have complained of fever. Though doctors said they are most likely suffering from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease -- but they have sent blood samples for bird flu tests anyway. After the first outbreak, India tested more than 100 people for bird flu but all proved negative.

Hospitals in Malegaon, 140 km (85 miles) from the latest outbreak, have treated nearly 2,000 people in 15 days.

Authorities said they had identified four villages spread over 1,100 square km (425 square miles) in the Jalgaon area as affected and were killing all birds -- an estimated 70,000 -- within that area.

Jalgaon is 200 km (125 miles) from Navapur, where the country reported its first case of the H5N1 strain last month. Authorities said last week they had contained the virus there after culling hundreds of thousands of chickens.

Monitoring was being stepped up in 38 districts around Jalgaon - including parts of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat -- and would cover not only humans and poultry but also pigs and cats.

Isolation wards have been kept ready in local hospitals should there be a need to quarantine people. Authorities have also restricted movement of traffic through the four affected villages.

However, poultry farm owners in adjacent Nasik said there was no threat of a bird-flu outbreak in the district.

"The bird flu which was in Navapur has spread to Jalgaon. But this problem is more with the chickens that are kept in houses in the villages as they are not fed well and are also not given vaccines. But the chickens kept in the farms are better taken care of. We have already given them three vaccines. Hence, there is not much a problem for these chickens," said Ashok Darare, a poultry businessman.

Earlier, television showed dead chickens lying on a road in Jalgaon and children in the affected areas playing with domestic poultry.

The first outbreak cost the poultry industry more than 120 million dollars in just two weeks. The bird flu virus has spread rapidly since the beginning of February, moving deeper into Europe, Africa and Asia.

Scientists fear it is only a matter of time before the virus mutates into a form that passes easily among people, triggering a pandemic. Millions could die and economies would be crippled if that happens, they say.

http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=26899

For reference, a lakh equals 100,000. In this town in India, they hid (moved to another location) 600,000 infected chickens that were meant to be culled. With the help of local politicians (!) Some things are just unbelievable to read

http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories.php?part=news&Story_ID=031751
(fair use applies)


More bird flu outbreaks feared

PTI New Delhi March 16: The bird flu outbreak among chickens in Jalgaon, the second such incident in Maharashtra in about a month, is unlikely to be the last, a senior Union health ministry official warned here today. Maharashtra is likely to witness several such outbreaks in the coming weeks because thousands of birds that were infected during the first outbreak in Nandurbar had been illegally shifted to other places in the state instead of being culled, the official said on condition of anonymity.

“We have evidence that the shifting took place with the patronage of some politicians,” the official told PTI, adding “such shifting will have surely created fresh hot spots of infection in other places in the state that can flare up anytime.”

According to the official, while nine lakh birds were officially claimed to have been culled, the cullers could actually account for only 2.9 lakh birds. “It is obvious that nearly six lakh birds, many of them possibly infected, had been taken away to other places.”


ALSO SEE THIS ARTICLE from a few weeks ago, hinting at the problem to come:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060222/asp/nation/story_5879738.asp
(fair use applies)

Chicken figure throws up a mystery
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Mumbai, Feb. 21: Maharashtra is grappling with the mystery of missing chickens.

From the declared 9 lakh birds to be culled, the number has overnight shrunk to just over 2 lakh.

The sharp fall has prompted chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to ask officials to carry out a probe. The officials are now expected to approach poultry owners in Navapur, where culling is in progress, with the baffling question.

According to the initial assessment, a total of about 9 lakh birds were to be culled but the number has since “declined” to about 2 lakh, the chief minister said today.

Deshmukh said the administration would ask poultry owners to furnish the number of chickens either sold or buried by them before the official culling operation commenced on February 18. “We will go through their records which have been seized,” he said.

Till yesterday, 94,000 chickens had been culled, Deshmukh said, adding that another 50,000 birds were culled today. Culling in 15 of the 16 affected farms had been completed.

Deshmukh confirmed that the collector of Nandurbar, the district in which Navapur is located, had issued a showcause notice to Venkateshwara Hatcheries, the original suppliers of the chicks that later tested positive for bird flu.

However, .P. Singh, the chief executive officer of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, said the company has not received any notice.

Singh said in Pune that the firm was not the only supplier of chicks to Navapur and that the poultry farms there were not franchisees of the company.

He said animal husbandry officers of the state government routinely check the breeders’ flocks at various poultry farms and issue certificates. “Therefore, it is unfair to allege as an afterthought that the ‘infected chicks of Navapur’ had been supplied by the company,” he said.

The chief minister said no case of bird flu has been detected anywhere else in the state but the animal husbandry department was on its toes in the morning following a report that over 1,000 chickens died in central Maharashtra’s Hingoli on Monday.

Hingoli is about 480 km east of Navapur, where the outbreak has been confirmed. Sources in the department said a few blood samples of the dead birds from Hingoli have been sent to the disease investigation section of the state government in Pune. Samples have also been sent to Bhopal.

The department’s regional director, R.K. Jondhale, said the samples have been sent for tests as a “precautionary measure”.

“The deaths could be because of other reasons but we are being extra cautious and sending them (the samples) for tests. But that does not mean that there is any need for unnecessary panic. It could be unrelated to avian flu,” Jondhale said.

Israel

Deadly strand of bird flu detected in Israel​

March 17 2006 at 07:45AM

Jerusalem - Initial laboratory tests indicated that a flock of turkeys that died on two farms in southern Israel were infected with the H5N1 flu virus, an agriculture ministry official said on Friday.

"Based on initial laboratory tests ... it is reasonable to conclude that this is the virus," said Dr Shimon Pokomonsky, an expert on bird diseases from the agriculture ministry who is conducting tests on the dead birds. He said it could take up to 48 hours to isolate the virus to get final confirmation.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1142573940836B216

Heliobas Disciple said:

For reference, a lakh equals 100,000. In this town in India, they hid (moved to another location) 600,000 infected chickens that were meant to be culled. With the help of local politicians (!) Some things are just unbelievable to read

http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories.php?part=news&Story_ID=031751
(fair use applies)


More bird flu outbreaks feared

PTI New Delhi March 16: The bird flu outbreak among chickens in Jalgaon, the second such incident in Maharashtra in about a month, is unlikely to be the last, a senior Union health ministry official warned here today. Maharashtra is likely to witness several such outbreaks in the coming weeks because thousands of birds that were infected during the first outbreak in Nandurbar had been illegally shifted to other places in the state instead of being culled, the official said on condition of anonymity.

“We have evidence that the shifting took place with the patronage of some politicians,” the official told PTI, adding “such shifting will have surely created fresh hot spots of infection in other places in the state that can flare up anytime.”

According to the official, while nine lakh birds were officially claimed to have been culled, the cullers could actually account for only 2.9 lakh birds. “It is obvious that nearly six lakh birds, many of them possibly infected, had been taken away to other places.”


ALSO SEE THIS ARTICLE from a few weeks ago, hinting at the problem to come:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060222/asp/nation/story_5879738.asp
(fair use applies)

Chicken figure throws up a mystery
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Mumbai, Feb. 21: Maharashtra is grappling with the mystery of missing chickens.

From the declared 9 lakh birds to be culled, the number has overnight shrunk to just over 2 lakh.

The sharp fall has prompted chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to ask officials to carry out a probe. The officials are now expected to approach poultry owners in Navapur, where culling is in progress, with the baffling question.

According to the initial assessment, a total of about 9 lakh birds were to be culled but the number has since “declined” to about 2 lakh, the chief minister said today.

Deshmukh said the administration would ask poultry owners to furnish the number of chickens either sold or buried by them before the official culling operation commenced on February 18. “We will go through their records which have been seized,” he said.

Till yesterday, 94,000 chickens had been culled, Deshmukh said, adding that another 50,000 birds were culled today. Culling in 15 of the 16 affected farms had been completed.

Deshmukh confirmed that the collector of Nandurbar, the district in which Navapur is located, had issued a showcause notice to Venkateshwara Hatcheries, the original suppliers of the chicks that later tested positive for bird flu.

However, .P. Singh, the chief executive officer of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, said the company has not received any notice.

Singh said in Pune that the firm was not the only supplier of chicks to Navapur and that the poultry farms there were not franchisees of the company.

He said animal husbandry officers of the state government routinely check the breeders’ flocks at various poultry farms and issue certificates. “Therefore, it is unfair to allege as an afterthought that the ‘infected chicks of Navapur’ had been supplied by the company,” he said.

The chief minister said no case of bird flu has been detected anywhere else in the state but the animal husbandry department was on its toes in the morning following a report that over 1,000 chickens died in central Maharashtra’s Hingoli on Monday.

Hingoli is about 480 km east of Navapur, where the outbreak has been confirmed. Sources in the department said a few blood samples of the dead birds from Hingoli have been sent to the disease investigation section of the state government in Pune. Samples have also been sent to Bhopal.

The department’s regional director, R.K. Jondhale, said the samples have been sent for tests as a “precautionary measure”.

“The deaths could be because of other reasons but we are being extra cautious and sending them (the samples) for tests. But that does not mean that there is any need for unnecessary panic. It could be unrelated to avian flu,” Jondhale said.

Click to expand...

So they're killing birds, as in food, living animals, Gods gift, etc. because they're scared that they may have Bird Flu .......which is not in the area. The nearest outbreak is almost 500Km's away and their wasting food.

Then they (The Gov't) get bent out of shape because local politicians do something right for once......for their people.......and assist them in saving these birds from senseless slaughter.

If this happens in the USA sign me up for the Underground Chicken Railroad. The Chicken Run clay-mations can be our mascots.

Damn freedom haters......what is happening!!!

Jumpy Frog said:

So they're killing birds, as in food, living animals, Gods gift, etc. because they're scared that they may have Bird Flu .......which is not in the area. The nearest outbreak is almost 500Km's away and their wasting food.

Then they (The Gov't) get bent out of shape because local politicians do something right for once......for their people.......and assist them in saving these birds from senseless slaughter.

If this happens in the USA sign me up for the Underground Chicken Railroad. The Chicken Run clay-mations can be our mascots.

Damn freedom haters......what is happening!!!

Click to expand...

JF, when H5N1 was confirmed in Nigeria... they started mass bird killings there too... and chix is the main protein source in many places... a lot of poor people went from being self sufficient to being dependent on UN handouts. In Africa, I see the sequence of stories being (a) H5N1 spreading, (b) some kind of a absorbtion of H5N1 under the AIDS umbrella, (c) then starvation because of 'food supply culling'... and lack of distribution for UN Handouts.

An interesting sub story to folllow is how TPTB are on the attack against 'free range chicken'. Africa is almost completely 'FRC'... in Europe, FRC has almost been completely terminated... and we're starting to hear about it here in the US. If you were a hard core conspiracy person, you could almost think the folks behind the mass GM (Genetically manuf/mutated) Chicken factories, had some hand in this... or at least the termination of FRC aspect. But then that would really be twisted, eh?

Bird flu mutation created in lab​

STACEY SINGER
COX NEWS SERVICE

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have broken new ground in the effort to track the evolution of bird flu, developing a technology that offers an early warning system for the flu's feared transition from bird slayer to human menace.

It's a rare but deadly event for bird flu to jump the species barrier. So rare, that scientists are aware of only a few previous occurrences: The first was the Spanish flu of 1918. It killed an estimated 30 million to 50 million people worldwide.

The second, the Asian flu, hit in 1957, killing 4 million. The third, in 1968, was the Hong Kong flu, which left 37,000 dead in the United States.

The new bird flu strain sweeping the globe - labeled H5N1 - already has infected 177 people and killed 98 of them. And yet, scientists say, it's not very contagious. For now, H5N1 favors the cells found in birds' intestinal tracts.

If and when its preference changes to people, health officials fear a cascade of human-to-human infection will follow, leaving millions dead. Congress in December appropriated $3.8 billion to prepare for and prevent that day.

In a paper released Thursday by the journal Science, the team based at Scripps' La Jolla, Calif., headquarters said they had created mutations in the lab that would likely increase bird flu's attraction to human cells

The potentially deadly mutation was identified with new technology called a glycan microarray. Developed at Scripps as part of a large international collaborative effort, the technology allows scientists to rapidly spot mutations in a key viral protein..

The Science paper suggests the technology may have an important role to play in mapping out whether bird flu is evolving into a greater threat to humans.

Molecular biologist James Stevens said this type of research can provide health authorities with an early-warning system to look for particular mutations that might lead to human adaptation.

"We can plan ahead if we know what we think might happen," Stevens said.
Making a dangerous virus more dangerous might sound counter-intuitive, but the Scripps scientists were working with just a small piece of influenza - one that's incapable of causing infection on its own. It came from a strain of H5N1 that killed a 10-year-old boy in Vietnam in 2004.

"The more these viruses interact with the human population, the more likely it is that it could adopt this type of mutation," Stevens said.

The scientists focused on one protein that studs the influenza virus exterior, called hemagglutinin. It's the "H" in H5N1, and it's critical because its job is to recognize and latch on to cells. Viruses cannot replicate on their own - they must hijack healthy cells to do it for them.

Viruses find their cellular victims by looking for the distinctive sugar molecules that coat cells' outer membranes.

The authors of the Science paper were able to change the H5N1 hemagglutinin enough for it to latch more easily onto sugars found on the exterior of cells lining human lungs.

Encouragingly, Stevens said, the mutations' attachment to the cells was weak - suggesting the existing virus cannot easily cross the species barrier outside a lab.

"It's surprising that it wasn't easy to convert," Stevens said. "There may be other factors that prevent it. That's not to say that Mother Nature won't come along and throw us a curve ball."

Dr. Robert Belshe, a physician at Saint Louis University's Infectious Diseases and Immunology department, said this research and others gives him hope that there's still time to head off a human pandemic. Belshe is conducting clinical trials on investigational avian flu vaccines.

The current avian flu outbreak was first recognized nine years ago. As it spreads in birds, one of the signs to watch for will be the mutation described in the Science paper, he said.

"If that occurred naturally it would be a very alarming event," Belshe said.

Vaccines and drugs offer the best defense, but it takes time and money to prepare the right attack and then make adequate quantities. Knowing what to watch for will help buy more time, Belshe said.

Scientists at Scripps have traveled this road before. Stevens recently analyzed mutations believed to convert the 1918 flu to a human strain. Twenty years earlier, Scripps' James Paulson helped develop a method to see how flu bound to sugars on cell membranes. It enabled a team including Wilson to find the amino acid combination that cause Hong Kong flu to bind to human cells.

Scripps' Ian Wilson also played a key role in understanding the Hong Kong flu. Working in the lab of Harvard's Don Wiley, he helped characterize the shape of hemagglutinin in 1981. In La Jolla, in the atrium of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at Scripps, a 3-foot-tall, three-dimensional model of a hemagglutinin molecule sits on a pedestal

When Scripps President Richard Lerner managed to recruit Wilson away from Harvard, he marked the occasion by commissioning the enormous model, Wilson said.

That model happens to be of the hemagglutinin found on the deadly Hong Kong flu. Coincidentally, its the source for the mutation that Stevens found gave H5N1 the strongest potential foothold on human cells.

Will a similar change happen in nature?

"It's all down to statistics and chance," Stevens said. "It could happen tomorrow, it could happen ten years from now, it may never happen."

In addition to Stevens, Wilson and Paulson, the Science paper was authored by Terrence Tumpey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Influenza Branch, Jeffery Taubenberger of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and Scripps molecular biologist Ola Blixt.

Blixt, working with Paulson and the Consortium for Functional Glycomics, designed the glycan microarray that was used to assess how well the bird flu hemagglutinin attached to sugars on the surface of human lung cells.

It's a clever technology, one that grew out of similar automation created for genetic screening.

Glass plates are covered with the ends of sugar molecules found on key cell types - 300 per plate. Fluorescent tagged hemagglutinin is washed across the plate. The spots that light up most brightly are the ones most able to bind the viral protein.

The science of glycomics, and the technology of glycan microarrays, is relatively young, but Paulson predicts it will lead to many more discoveries. Twenty years after he discovered why Hong Kong flu made the leap to humans, Paulson said, "The questions are the same, but the tools are a lot more sophisticated."

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/app...3170340&SectionCat=BUSINESS&Template=printart

Israel

Israel orders destruction of turkey flocks ​

17/03/2006 - 11:18:45 AM

Israeli officials ordered the destruction of turkey flocks in three farming communities following bird flu tests, the Agriculture Ministry said today.

Meanwhile, three people from one of those communities have been admitted to a southern Israeli hospital on suspicion of contracting bird flu.

There has been no definite confirmation of a first outbreak in Israel of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. But preliminary tests after 11,000 turkeys died indicate “a very high chance that this is avian flu,” Health Minister Yaakov Edri said.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/03/17/story249736.html#

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17272538.htm

H5N1 virus found in Israel, one hospitalised
17 Mar 2006 11:05:39 GMT

Source: Reuters

Background CRISIS PROFILE: Bird flu


CRISIS PROFILE: Israeli-Palestinian conflict


Bird flu questions and answers


MORE
(Adds suspected human bird flu case)

By Tali Caspi

TEL AVIV, March 17 (Reuters) - Israel hospitalised one person with suspected bird flu on Friday after officials said they had found the country's first cases of the H5N1 virus in thousands of turkeys and chickens found dead on two farms.

The patient, a Thai national who was admitted after complaining of flu symptoms, worked at infected coops at a collective farm in southern Israel hit by H5N1, a hospital spokesman said.

Two other patients were en route to the same hospital, although it was unclear if they worked at the farms. Israel has had no confirmed human cases of the virus.

"Last night we informed the World Health Organisation that the H5N1 virus has spread to Israel," Dr Moshe Haimovitch, a senior agriculture ministry official, told reporters in Tel Aviv, referring to the infected poultry.

Officials said they were double-checking the results and expected final confirmation soon.

Agriculture officials ordered the culling of turkeys and chickens in the vicinity of the two communal farms, Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha and Kibbutz Holit, located near the Gaza Strip. More than 10,000 poultry had died in recent days at the farms.

Agriculture officials said hundreds of thousands of fowl might need to be destroyed to contain the outbreak.

The communal farms were put under quarantine and fowl within a 3 km (2 mile) radius of the infected areas would be culled, officials said. The virus was also suspected to have infected fowl at a communal farm 25 km (15.5 miles) southwest of Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority had been informed and asked to inspect chicken coops in Gaza and the West Bank, officials said.

Israel is also testing dead fowl found in the West Bank and Gaza on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in rare cooperation as agriculture officials attempt to control the spread of the virus.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread with alarming speed in recent weeks across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia.

The more it spreads, the greater the fears of the virus mutating into a form that could easily pass from one person to another, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.

Bird flu is hard to catch but people can contract it after coming into contact with infected birds. Around 100 people have died from bird flu around the world.

Hospitals in Israel have been put on alert for patients arriving with flu-like symptoms.

from Pandora's post #7:

Hundreds of people in a nearby area have complained of fever. Though doctors said they are most likely suffering from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease -- but they have sent blood samples for bird flu tests anyway. After the first outbreak, India tested more than 100 people for bird flu but all proved negative.

Don't many prove to test positive when tested a second time? Didn't that happen in Indonesia?

from www.news.scotsman.com

Researchers' bird flu warning
EDINBURGH University researchers believe the transportation of animals across the world might need to be halted to prevent the spread of bird flu.

The researchers from the university's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies also said that animals should be screened for infectious disease before they are transported between countries.

Outbreaks of the dangerous H5N1 strain of bird flu have occurred in Romania, Russia and Turkey, and Western Europe is on high alert in case the disease spreads further.

Nuthatch said:

from Pandora's post #7:

Hundreds of people in a nearby area have complained of fever. Though doctors said they are most likely suffering from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease -- but they have sent blood samples for bird flu tests anyway. After the first outbreak, India tested more than 100 people for bird flu but all proved negative.

Don't many prove to test positive when tested a second time? Didn't that happen in Indonesia?

Click to expand...

Yes, actually, from what I've read, a 'false negative' has happened quite a few times.....

Israel finds H5N1 in birds

Mar 17, 2006 — By Tali Caspi

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel detected its first cases of H5N1 bird flu on Friday, saying the virus had killed thousands of turkeys and chicken on two farms, and it hospitalized one person suspected of being infected.

Bird flu has spread with alarming speed in recent weeks across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, stoking fears the virus could mutate into a form that could easily pass from one person to another, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.

"Last night we informed the World Health Organization that the H5N1 virus has spread to Israel," Dr Moshe Haimovitch, a senior agriculture ministry official, said in Tel Aviv.

Officials said they were double-checking the results and expected final confirmation soon.

Israeli agriculture officials said hundreds of thousands of fowl might need to be destroyed to contain the outbreak, discovered on two communal farms located near the Gaza Strip.

A Thai national who worked in the coops on one of the farms was admitted to hospital after complaining of flu-like symptoms.

Although hard to catch, people can contract bird flu after coming into contact with infected birds. The World Health Organization says 98 people have died from H5N1 so far.

Tests were also being carried out on a Serbian boy from a village near the border with Bosnia where bird flu had been identified in birds.

"The case is still under investigation," World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

The risk of human infection means people must wear protective clothing when culling birds in areas where H5N1 has broken out.

In Afghanistan, where bird flu was confirmed on Thursday, a lack of protective suits is delaying efforts to stop the virus's spread.

"We plan to start the culling. We're waiting only for protective clothing," said Azizullah Osmani, an agriculture ministry official, who added he hoped U.S. forces could supply some suits.

Israel confirms bird flu outbreak

Around 11,000 birds have died in Israel's first outbreak of the virus
Israeli officials have confirmed that thousands of turkeys and chickens found dead in the south of the country had the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
Tests were ordered after the dead poultry were discovered on two farms in Ein Hashlosha and Holit, next to the Gaza Strip in the western Negev desert.

Several people have been admitted to hospital with flu-like symptoms.

A quarantine has been imposed around the area and thousands of birds are expected to be culled over coming days.

On Thursday, Israeli Agriculture Minister Zeev Boim said the authorities were prepared to contain the virus' spread if an outbreak was confirmed.

Workers hospitalised

Speaking to reporters a day after the dead poultry were found, the director of veterinary services at the agriculture ministry confirmed the H5N1 strain had been detected.

QUICK GUIDE


Bird flu


Moshe Haimovitch said around 11,000 birds had died at the two farms in Israel's first outbreak of the virus.

Mr Haimovitch said officials were preparing to kill a further 300,000 birds inside the 7km (four-mile) quarantine zone around the two communities over the coming days.

Up to five people who came into contact with the infected birds at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha and Kibbutz Holit have been admitted to a hospital in the southern city of Beersheva with flu-like symptoms.

A kibbutz between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv has also been sealed off after more birds were found dead.

Testing

The source of the outbreak has not been determined, but the Israeli army is reported to have asked the Palestinian Authority to deliver blood samples from poultry in Gaza.





Both Israel and the Gaza Strip share a border with Egypt, where the virus has been found in birds in at least 15 governorates.

The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Jerusalem says it is not clear what the response to the Israeli request has been at a time of increased tension between Israelis and Palestinians after the storming of a jail in Jericho and the capture of a leading Palestinian militant earlier this week.

But Israeli officials say they are testing dead poultry in the West Bank and Gaza in a rare show of co-operation with the Palestinians.

The H5N1 strain of the virus has killed more than 70 people worldwide.

It does not pose a large-scale threat to humans, as it cannot pass easily from one person to another.

However, experts fear the virus could mutate to gain this ability, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4816586.stm

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/1b49d5ae-b...age=58ce9120-0c78-11d8-81c6-0820abe49a01.html

Experts unsure if pets can transmit bird flu to humans
Published: March 16 2006 19:36 | Last updated: March 16 2006 19:36

Scientists are in the dark about whether bird flu could be transmitted from cats and other pets to people, according to David Nabarro, the senior United Nations co-ordinator for avian influenza, Raphael Minder reports from Brussels.

Dr Nabarro said on a visit to Brussels that there was insufficient research at this stage to establish how big the risk was of people contracting the disease from pets, even if the working assumption was that the risk was small. His comments come after the recent discovery of an infected cat in northern Germany, which has prompted some European authorities to urge pet owners to keep them indoors or tightly controlled.

Dr Nabarro said: “It’s quite likely that animals which feed on birds are going to get ill with H5N1 in regions where dead birds are showing up . . . The unanswered question is what role are these animals going to have as transmitters to humans. The answer is quite simply: we do not know.’’

He also urged European and other governments to recognise bird flu as a global issue that could not be confronted simply by national action. “There is a need for the whole world to recognise that we are in the midst of an expanding situation which is going to need an expanded response.”

=




<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Five nations confirm bird flu outbreaks</font>

Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:04 PM ET
By Krittivas Mukherjee
<A href="http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-03-16T200403Z_01_N12232814_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU.xml&archived=False">today.reuters.com</a></center>
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Four Asian nations and Denmark confirmed the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu on Thursday while Israel said it feared bird flu had killed turkeys on two farms.

Afghanistan, India and Myanmar said tests had now confirmed H5N1 caused recent outbreaks in birds, while Malaysia reported two new cases in a wild bird and dead chickens.

Denmark, the latest European country affected, said tests showed a wild buzzard found south of Copenhagen had H5N1.</b>

Israel suspects bird flu killed turkeys on two farms in its southern Negev region although there were no test results yet, Agricultural Minister Zeev Boim said. Israel has so far been spared the virus.

Swiss drug maker Roche said it was boosting output of its flu drug Tamiflu by a third. Tamiflu is seen as one of the most effective methods of treating people infected with H5N1.

In India, veterinary workers began throttling more than 70,000 birds to try to control the latest outbreak there. Hundreds of people were also tested for fever.

"There is no time for niceties. The birds have to be killed as fast as possible," said Bijay Kumar, animal husbandry commissioner of the state of Maharashtra, where bird flu resurfaced this week in backyard poultry.

Bird flu has spread with alarming speed in recent weeks across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, leaving some impoverished nations such as Afghanistan and Myanmar appealing for protective clothing and other basic equipment.

The more it spreads, the greater the fears of the virus mutating into a form that could easily pass from one person to another, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.

Although hard to catch, people can contract bird flu after coming into contact with infected birds.

Three young women who died in recent weeks in Azerbaijan, on the crossroads between Europe and Asia, are thought to be the latest human victims of the virus. If confirmed as caused by H5N1, the deaths would take the human toll to over 100.

In Serbia, a teenager from a bird flu-stricken area was put in isolation after developing a high fever that could be a symptom of the disease, the country's chief epidemiologist said.

"The boy is from the family where we found a rooster with clinical symptoms of bird flu," Predrag Kon told Reuters, adding he would be kept in isolation for 72 hours or until the possibility of bird flu had been ruled out.

WAKE-UP CALL

David Nabarro, senior U.N. coordinator for avian influenza, said he expected the virus to continue to spread in birds.

"With the arrival of H5N1 in birds, we have been given a wake-up call. It is truly essential for every leader of every country to be aware that this is a global issue," he told reporters during a visit to Brussels.

Drug maker Roche has agreed deals with external producers to make more Tamiflu available. Production capacity is to increase by an additional 100 million treatments to a total of 400 million by the end of the year.

Dutch authorities launched a vaccination campaign for poultry on Thursday, with chickens on the farm of agriculture minister Cees Veerman the first to be treated.

The Netherlands is one of the European Union's leading poultry producers.

So far, no human cases have been reported in India, Afghanistan, Myanmar or Malaysia but hundreds of people near India's latest outbreak in western Maharashtra state have complained of fever. Doctors say they are most likely suffering from dengue but further tests are being done.

In Myanmar, officials have slaughtered more than 5,000 birds, temporarily closed poultry markets and banned bird movements in two bird flu-hit townships, state media said.

The Afghan government and the United Nations also confirmed the presence of H5N1 in the South Asian nation.

There is concern that Afghanistan, with weak veterinary and health sectors after decades of war, will struggle to contain an outbreak. Agriculture officials say they don't even have protective suits that should be worn during culling of poultry.

=




<B><center>Friday 17 March 2006

<font size=+1 color=green>New virus alert in Asia and EU </font>

<A href="http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=138339&Sn=WORL&IssueID=28362">www.gulf-daily-news.com</a><?center>
KABUL: Afghanistan, Burma, Malaysia and Denmark confirmed their first outbreaks of the deadly strain of bird flu yesterday, while Azerbaijan tested a dead dog to see if the virulent variant had jumped to yet another species.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain has killed about 100 people in seven countries since 2003.

Denmark detected its first case of this deadly variant in a wild buzzard found dead on the island of Zealand, veterinary authorities said. It awaits official confirmation from European Union reference laboratory in Weybdridge, England.</b>

In the first suspected case of the virus in Britain, the EU reference laboratory was testing several chickens found dead at a farm on the Orkney Islands off the northern coast of Scotland.

Initial tests on turkeys that died in southern Israel tested positive for bird flu although the type was unclear, Israel media said yesterday.

The United Nations and the Afghan government confirmed the deadly strain in samples from Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad, the country's first outbreaks. Afghanistan ordered the immediate slaughter of all birds in affected areas.

Pakistan was also taking "protective measures" as it awaited confirmation from the EU laboratory on an outbreak at two chicken farms on the Afghan border.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan was testing for bird flu in the bodies of three women found dead earlier this week and a dog found yesterday on the outskirts of the capital Baku.

The health ministry ordered the eradication of all domestic birds within a three-kilometre radius of any outbreak of avian influenza, but the order was widely ignored.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said laboratory tests had confirmed an H5N1 outbreak reported by Burma three days ago in the central town of Mandalay.

Health authorities have slaughtered 12,500 chickens and quarantined 43 farms near Mandalay. Malaysia yesterday announced a new outbreak of the H5N1 strain in an eco-park and a village in the northern state of Perak.

Countries in three continents rolled out urgent protective measures against H5N1.

India stepped up a mass slaughter following a second outbreak of avian flu. More than 17,000 chickens have been culled in the western state of Maharashtra.

Nigeria said it was stockpiling flu drugs and blood-testing people in areas at risk from the virus. It became the first African country to detect it last month, followed by its neighbours Niger and Cameroon, along with Egypt.

Meanwhile, officials in Ethiopia said initial test results on samples from domestic fowl that died last month tested negative for the H5N1. In Europe, farmers in the Netherlands received official clearance to start vaccinating poultry until the end of June, the agriculture ministry said, following a similar programme in France.

The Netherlands has not yet detected any cases.

=




<B><center>The Bird Flu: How Much Fear Is Healthy?
<font size=+1 color=purple>As the government warnings mount, an expert explains how we need to prepare for a possible pandemic</font>

By CHRISTINE GORMAN
Posted Wednesday, Mar. 15, 2006
<A href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1173650,00.html?promoid=rss_world">www.time.com</a></center>
The official warnings about bird flu have been growing scarier in the past few days. In a speech last Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt advised folks to stock up on tuna fish and powdered milk in case the bird flu virus mutates into a form that could easily infect people. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns recently told reporters, "It would be almost biblical to think we would be protected." Then there was Robert Webster, the noted flu virologist from St. Jude Children's Research Center, who said on national television Tuesday night that he had a three-month supply of food and water in his house in case bird flu becomes a serious human pandemic. </b>

Scientists and government officials are usually supposed to calm people down, but these authorities seem to be trying to provoke greater fear, even a little panic. This is not necessarily such a bad thing, says Peter Sandman, a risk communications consultant based in Princeton, N.J., who has advised HHS officials in the past not to be too concerned about alarming the public when trying to educate them to a new danger.

"When they were listening to me many months ago, they didn’t agree with me," Sandman says. What happened to apparently change the attitude? President Bush read The Great Influenza, a book by John Barry about the devastating 1918-1919 pandemic. Then Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and revealed the consequences of poor or nonexistent planning.

Sandman argues that it’s hard to rouse folks from their usual day-to-day routine to prepare for a new threat without also triggering alarm. Besides, a little bit of panic helps folks prepare emotionally for what the future may hold. It’s a necessary kind of "adjustment reaction," he says, that allows folks to think about what they can and cannot do, so that when the crisis comes they don’t just dissolve into despair and inaction.

"This is the hardest kind of risk to focus on because it’s potentially huge but nobody knows if it will happen or how big it will be," the consultant says. One possibility is that bird flu will mutate and start infecting people easily, but the result is only a mild pandemic, like the flu pandemic of 1968. (Many people who were alive then still aren’t aware they lived through a pandemic.) In that case, people will wonder what all the fuss was about. But another possibility is that the pandemic will be severe—as bad as the 1918 pandemic or even worse. In such a worst-case situation, being prepared could mean the difference between life and death. The biggest problem, many experts believe, will not be the availability of medical care, but all the bottlenecks and breakdowns that will occur because so many people are sick or staying home from work because they fear getting sick.

People need to think about the possibility of these disruptions now, Sandman argues. What if you couldn’t get to a pharmacy for three months to fill a prescription for high blood pressure medication, placing you at greater risk of a heart attack or stroke? Have you thought about where and how you’d take care of someone in your family who got sick, to avoid infecting anyone else in the house? What if enough truck drivers who deliver chlorine to water treatment plants get sick that the water in your community is no longer treated? Is there a stock of water that you could rely on in such an emergency? Now might be a good time to get to know your neighbors better, since you may be depending on their kindness for deliveries of food. What’s the plan at your local church, school or office in the event of a human pandemic?

"We can do something about this," Sandman says. "We can stockpile chlorine for water treatment plants. We can make sure we have enough energy so we don’t freeze to death. We can do something for people with chronic conditions." Imagining the possibilities helps you to prepare emotionally and to figure out what precautions are reasonable to take. "You’re not completely ready, but you’re readier. You’re as ready as you can be."

Even if a severe pandemic occurs, Sandman points out, most people would probably survive. "Let’s say it kills 5% of infected people, which is twice as bad as 1918," he says. "That still means that 95% of people who get the flu have two weeks of hell and then they get better. And when they get better, long before the government makes a vaccine, they’ll be immune." We should then figure out how to gather these immunized folks, Sandman says, into volunteer groups to do the jobs—like food and water deliveries — that might be needed as the pandemic progresses.

Sandman has some advice for journalists covering the bird flu as well: stop focusing so much on birds and other animals that get infected. "The problem with people focusing on bird flu and not a pandemic among humans is that as long as there’s no bird flu in town, they think they’re safe. We really need people to understand that it’s not about the birds. You’re not at any greater risk after a bird is found to be infected and you’re not any safer before an infected bird is found." The key moment will come if and when the bid flu mutates in such a way as to infect humans. Then it won't matter where the infected birds are; the new strain will quickly circle the globe.

=




<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Sleepless nights over our feathered friends</font>

TV REVIEW
LOUISA PEARSON
<A href="http://living.scotsman.com/tv.cfm?id=379042006">living.scotsman.com</a></center>
IF YOU are a parent, I have a few words of advice: don't let your young children watch Hitchcock's The Birds. I'm sure you wouldn't, but just in case you are considering it, I can confirm that it leads to a lifelong paranoia about "our feathered friends". Along with The Poseidon Adventure, The Birds was a film that gave my younger self nightmares. The worst of them involved being trapped in an upturned cruise liner filled with crows. Today if I see a flapping wing out the corner of my eye, hear the screech of a seabird or, heaven forbid, witness a menacing flock of crows perched on a climbing frame, clammy hands and shortness of breath are soon to follow. </b>

But having suffered in silence for years, now it seems the rest of the world is catching up with me. Blame it on the bird flu. Even those who faithfully fill their garden bird feeders each day are washing their hands rigorously after replenishing the peanuts. People more paranoid than me are buying Tamiflu off the internet, just in case. Equinox Special: Beating Bird Flu aimed to separate fact from fiction.

This was largely a factual programme, but it couldn't help spicing things up a little. The voiceover didn't say "bird flu", it whispered "deadly bird flu" in the breathy style of a Marks & Spencer's food commercial. To help prevent a bird flu pandemic, it seems that today's top scientists have decided to become "history detectives", investigating the 1918 flu that killed 50 million people worldwide, before applying their findings to the current crisis. I was visualising them stepping into a TARDIS, Doctor Who-style, but that was wishful thinking.

Equinox succeeded with the history lesson and made light work of the science of bird flu, too. Brightly coloured graphics representing the flu virus attacking human cells made the infection process seem like a computer game. Even the language was suitable for the layman - who knew that the flu virus uses "tiny grappling hooks" to attack healthy cells? At the core of the tale was Professor John Oxford's research into the 1918 flu. It turned out that this virus had started off life as a bird flu, before jumping the species barrier and allowing human to human transmission. From here on in, things got technical, with secret US labs recreating viruses and men in biohazard suits talking about "deadly mutations".

By the end of the programme, we'd been told that study of 1918 flu meant that scientists could better monitor the progress of the current bird flu. Should it show signs of becoming infectious through breathing, the docs could be straight in there with the Tamiflu. However, there is still the chance that if someone with ordinary flu catches bird flu as well, another hybrid virus could emerge and bump most of us off. Everybody looked calm, but I swear I heard someone off camera say: "head for the hills".

Feeling troubled and still unclear as to whether my fear of birds is justified, I tuned into Man Stroke Woman. Originally a BBC3 offering, it's been promoted to BBC2, just like Little Britain before it. But the promotion is no guarantee of cult status. I lost track of how many sketches there were, but the total number of sketches that made me laugh stayed firmly at two. The best one by a long way involved an exploding dog. Almost every other skit seemed to involve a character who was really stupid and couldn't grasp a simple concept, and the ghost of The Office lurked in every scene. Apparently it has the same producer as The Office, and to remind us of this, the male actors took it in turns to perform in the style of Ricky Gervais. Even that likeable bloke Nick Frost from Spaced, who has a comic talent all his own, occasionally slipped into David Brent impersonations. Maybe it's a new comedy genre that I just don't get. There's no slapstick, no keen observation of everyday life to identify with, and no one-liners. If it hadn't been for the exploding dog, I'd have been on the phone to the Samaritans.

=




<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Panic is the real danger </font>

Marc Siegel The Boston Globe
FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2006
<A href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/17/opinion/edsiegel.php">www.iht.com</a></center>
NEW YORK The bird flu expert Robert Webster told ABC News this week that there were "about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human," and "society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die... I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role."</b>

I disagree. As one of the top flu experts in the world, Webster's role is to track influenza in the test tube, not to make sweeping speculations that are not based on science and do far more harm than good.

By his estimate, we should be destroying every bird in the world right now before we all perish in a pool of pathogens.

Webster's statement is the latest Hitchcockian pronouncement about H5N1 bird flu, a virus that is deadly in birds. But humans are different. We are protected by a species barrier, and serological surveys conducted in 1997 in Hong Kong and since have detected antibodies in thousands of humans who never got sick, showing that bird flu isn't as deadly to the few who come in contact with it as has been reported.

In fact, the growing immunity to H5N1 worldwide may lessen the outbreak in humans even if the dreaded mutation does occur. As time passes, the chances of this mutation appear less rather than more likely. (The Spanish flu, by comparison, mutated before killing a lot of birds.)

If H5N1 takes hold in pigs and exchanges genetic material with another flu virus, the result is likely to be far less deadly.

The swine flu fiasco of 1976 is an example of the damage that can be done from fear of a mutated virus that can theoretically affect us. More than 1,000 cases of paralysis occurred from a rushed vaccine given to more than 40 million people in response to a pandemic that never came.

Why provoke the public to see a potential pandemic in end-of-the-world terms? A pandemic simply means people in several areas having a disease at the same time - but it may be hundreds rather than millions.

The last flu pandemic, in 1968, killed 33,800 Americans, which is flu's toll in an average year. We don't need to panic in advance for that kind of pandemic.

Cooking poultry kills any flu 100 percent of the time, yet the fear of H5N1 bird flu is already so out of control in Europe that 46 countries have banned French poultry exports after a single turkey was found to be infected. France, fourth in the world in poultry exports, is already hemorrhaging more than $40 million a month.

Imagine what would happen if a bird in the United States gets H5N1 bird flu. At the rate we are going, the fear of birds will be so great that our own poultry industry, number one in the world, is likely to be in shambles.

We already have this problem with mad cow disease, where a single sick cow that is not even in the food chain makes people nervous, despite the fact that it is almost impossible to get mad cow disease from eating beef.

Flu is worthy of our concern. But panic can be far more virulent and costly than the bird flu itself.

(Dr. Marc Siegel, associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine, is author of "False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear." This article first appeared in The Boston Globe)
NEW YORK The bird flu expert Robert Webster told ABC News this week that there were "about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human," and "society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die... I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role."

I disagree. As one of the top flu experts in the world, Webster's role is to track influenza in the test tube, not to make sweeping speculations that are not based on science and do far more harm than good.

By his estimate, we should be destroying every bird in the world right now before we all perish in a pool of pathogens.

Webster's statement is the latest Hitchcockian pronouncement about H5N1 bird flu, a virus that is deadly in birds. But humans are different. We are protected by a species barrier, and serological surveys conducted in 1997 in Hong Kong and since have detected antibodies in thousands of humans who never got sick, showing that bird flu isn't as deadly to the few who come in contact with it as has been reported.

In fact, the growing immunity to H5N1 worldwide may lessen the outbreak in humans even if the dreaded mutation does occur. As time passes, the chances of this mutation appear less rather than more likely. (The Spanish flu, by comparison, mutated before killing a lot of birds.)

If H5N1 takes hold in pigs and exchanges genetic material with another flu virus, the result is likely to be far less deadly.

The swine flu fiasco of 1976 is an example of the damage that can be done from fear of a mutated virus that can theoretically affect us. More than 1,000 cases of paralysis occurred from a rushed vaccine given to more than 40 million people in response to a pandemic that never came.

Why provoke the public to see a potential pandemic in end-of-the-world terms? A pandemic simply means people in several areas having a disease at the same time - but it may be hundreds rather than millions.

The last flu pandemic, in 1968, killed 33,800 Americans, which is flu's toll in an average year. We don't need to panic in advance for that kind of pandemic.

Cooking poultry kills any flu 100 percent of the time, yet the fear of H5N1 bird flu is already so out of control in Europe that 46 countries have banned French poultry exports after a single turkey was found to be infected. France, fourth in the world in poultry exports, is already hemorrhaging more than $40 million a month.

Imagine what would happen if a bird in the United States gets H5N1 bird flu. At the rate we are going, the fear of birds will be so great that our own poultry industry, number one in the world, is likely to be in shambles.

We already have this problem with mad cow disease, where a single sick cow that is not even in the food chain makes people nervous, despite the fact that it is almost impossible to get mad cow disease from eating beef.

Flu is worthy of our concern. But panic can be far more virulent and costly than the bird flu itself.

(Dr. Marc Siegel, associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine, is author of "False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear." This article first appeared in The Boston Globe)
NEW YORK The bird flu expert Robert Webster told ABC News this week that there were "about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human," and "society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die... I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role."

I disagree. As one of the top flu experts in the world, Webster's role is to track influenza in the test tube, not to make sweeping speculations that are not based on science and do far more harm than good.

By his estimate, we should be destroying every bird in the world right now before we all perish in a pool of pathogens.

Webster's statement is the latest Hitchcockian pronouncement about H5N1 bird flu, a virus that is deadly in birds. But humans are different. We are protected by a species barrier, and serological surveys conducted in 1997 in Hong Kong and since have detected antibodies in thousands of humans who never got sick, showing that bird flu isn't as deadly to the few who come in contact with it as has been reported.

In fact, the growing immunity to H5N1 worldwide may lessen the outbreak in humans even if the dreaded mutation does occur. As time passes, the chances of this mutation appear less rather than more likely. (The Spanish flu, by comparison, mutated before killing a lot of birds.)

If H5N1 takes hold in pigs and exchanges genetic material with another flu virus, the result is likely to be far less deadly.

The swine flu fiasco of 1976 is an example of the damage that can be done from fear of a mutated virus that can theoretically affect us. More than 1,000 cases of paralysis occurred from a rushed vaccine given to more than 40 million people in response to a pandemic that never came.

Why provoke the public to see a potential pandemic in end-of-the-world terms? A pandemic simply means people in several areas having a disease at the same time - but it may be hundreds rather than millions.

The last flu pandemic, in 1968, killed 33,800 Americans, which is flu's toll in an average year. We don't need to panic in advance for that kind of pandemic.

Cooking poultry kills any flu 100 percent of the time, yet the fear of H5N1 bird flu is already so out of control in Europe that 46 countries have banned French poultry exports after a single turkey was found to be infected. France, fourth in the world in poultry exports, is already hemorrhaging more than $40 million a month.

Imagine what would happen if a bird in the United States gets H5N1 bird flu. At the rate we are going, the fear of birds will be so great that our own poultry industry, number one in the world, is likely to be in shambles.

We already have this problem with mad cow disease, where a single sick cow that is not even in the food chain makes people nervous, despite the fact that it is almost impossible to get mad cow disease from eating beef.

Flu is worthy of our concern. But panic can be far more virulent and costly than the bird flu itself.

(Dr. Marc Siegel, associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine, is author of "False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear." This article first appeared in The Boston Globe)
NEW YORK The bird flu expert Robert Webster told ABC News this week that there were "about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human," and "society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die... I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role."

I disagree. As one of the top flu experts in the world, Webster's role is to track influenza in the test tube, not to make sweeping speculations that are not based on science and do far more harm than good.

By his estimate, we should be destroying every bird in the world right now before we all perish in a pool of pathogens.

Webster's statement is the latest Hitchcockian pronouncement about H5N1 bird flu, a virus that is deadly in birds. But humans are different. We are protected by a species barrier, and serological surveys conducted in 1997 in Hong Kong and since have detected antibodies in thousands of humans who never got sick, showing that bird flu isn't as deadly to the few who come in contact with it as has been reported.

In fact, the growing immunity to H5N1 worldwide may lessen the outbreak in humans even if the dreaded mutation does occur. As time passes, the chances of this mutation appear less rather than more likely. (The Spanish flu, by comparison, mutated before killing a lot of birds.)

If H5N1 takes hold in pigs and exchanges genetic material with another flu virus, the result is likely to be far less deadly.

The swine flu fiasco of 1976 is an example of the damage that can be done from fear of a mutated virus that can theoretically affect us. More than 1,000 cases of paralysis occurred from a rushed vaccine given to more than 40 million people in response to a pandemic that never came.

Why provoke the public to see a potential pandemic in end-of-the-world terms? A pandemic simply means people in several areas having a disease at the same time - but it may be hundreds rather than millions.

The last flu pandemic, in 1968, killed 33,800 Americans, which is flu's toll in an average year. We don't need to panic in advance for that kind of pandemic.

Cooking poultry kills any flu 100 percent of the time, yet the fear of H5N1 bird flu is already so out of control in Europe that 46 countries have banned French poultry exports after a single turkey was found to be infected. France, fourth in the world in poultry exports, is already hemorrhaging more than $40 million a month.

Imagine what would happen if a bird in the United States gets H5N1 bird flu. At the rate we are going, the fear of birds will be so great that our own poultry industry, number one in the world, is likely to be in shambles.

We already have this problem with mad cow disease, where a single sick cow that is not even in the food chain makes people nervous, despite the fact that it is almost impossible to get mad cow disease from eating beef.

Flu is worthy of our concern. But panic can be far more virulent and costly than the bird flu itself.

(Dr. Marc Siegel, associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine, is author of "False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear." This article first appeared in The Boston Globe)

=



<B><center>March 17 2006
Scientists Spot Potential Bird-Flu Pathway to Humans

<font size=+1 color=blue>A mutation in a surface protein might lead to a pandemic, study says</font>

<A href="http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/432546/scientists_spot_potential_birdflu_pathway_to_humans/index.html">www.redorbit.com</a></center>
A newly developed molecular technology has identified certain mutations that the avian flu virus might undergo to unleash a human epidemic, researchers report.

The key is a mutation in the hemagglutinin molecule -- the "H" in the H5N1 designation of the bird flu virus -- that sits on the surface of the virus and is the primary target of the immune system's protective antibodies.</b>

Besides giving insight into just how H5N1 might change, the finding could help scientists recognize important viral mutations early on and alert health officials to the potential for a pandemic.

"We looked at the structure of the H5 hemagglutinin from a recent bird flu isolate in Vietnam," said Ian A. Wilson, professor of molecular biology at the Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, Calif. That virus, which was found in a boy who died of bird flu in 2004, was similar to the one that caused the 1918-19 "Spanish flu" pandemic, which killed an estimated 20 million to 40 million worldwide, he said.

"Although this is an avian [bird] virus, similar to the 1918 virus, what we are really looking at is how a virus crosses the species barrier," Wilson said.

In principle, it's a substantial barrier. The bird flu virus attaches itself to cells in the intestinal tract, while the human flu virus attacks cells in the respiratory tract.

However, a previous study showed that only two mutations were needed to transform the bird virus to one that could infect humans, Wilson said.

"Biologists are concerned about being able to detect changes in the avian virus that might signal a transition to moving to a human host," added James C. Paulson, another professor of molecular biology at Scripps. "This method specifically looked at one change known to be a major difference between the avian virus and its counterpart in humans."

As reported in the March 17 issue of Science, the researchers used a technique called functional glycan microarray, which studies specific sugar molecules that allow the virus to attach itself to cells. There are a few known mutations that can convert other viruses with H2- and H3-type components from bird to human infections, but the new study showed that these mutations do not cause the H5 bird flu virus to switch to a preference for infecting human cells.

There was a slight change in the virus found in the Vietnamese boy. "This paper concludes that this change might be sufficient for the avian virus to get a foothold in the human population, but not sufficient for the virus to have full virulence in humans," Paulson said.

Human infection with the avian virus currently requires direct exposure to infected birds, he noted.

According to James Stevens, an assistant professor of molecular biology at Scripps, the new research has "identified a possible route that the virus could take [in the future] to become adapted to human beings."

There is some comfort in an indication that this change might not be easy for the virus, Paulson added.

The functional glycan microarray technique was developed at Scripps and is being used by some other laboratories, Paulson said. It could be very useful in the continuing effort to determine whether and how the H5N1 avian flu virus might become a major menace to humans, he said.

"We don't know how well-adapted these viruses need to be to get a human foothold," Wilson pointed out. "I suggest that there could be tests in the field for receptor binding."

The bulk of bird-flu infections have occurred in Asia, although the germ has been identified in birds in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. More than 100 people have been killed by H5N1, which so far has only been caught through direct contact with infected birds.

Israel....

Three people hospitalized for possible avian flu​

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/695120.html

By Assaf Uni, Ran Reznick and Amiram Cohen, Haaretz Correspondents, Agencies and Haaretz Staff


Three workers at two Negev kibbutzim where more than 1,000 turkeys were found dead Thursday were taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva on Friday for treatment of possible bird flu.

Meanwhile, the bird flu was suspected of spreading to two additional sites Friday - Moshav Sde Moshe, near the southern town of Kiryat Gat, and Kibbutz Nachshon, 25 kilometers from Jerusalem.

One of the patients, a Thai laborer who works at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, is being held in isolation. The other two, Bedouin from the Tel Arad region who work at Kibbutz Holit, said they had been feeling sick for the past few days but could not get off work. Hospital administrators said test results for the three kibbutz workers would be ready by Sunday.

The possible human infections came as lab tests appeared to confirm suspicions that more than 1,000 turkeys in Ein Hashlosha, Holit and Nachshon were infected by the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

However, the World Health Organization does not view the test conducted on the turkeys, called PCR, as a definitive confirmation of the existence of the viral strain. Israel is in the process of conducting a second, stricter test, whose results are expected by Sunday.

Meanwhile, Israel on Friday halted all exports of unprocessed chicken and turkey meat to overseas destinations.

Israel decided not to wait for the results of the stricter test, however, and authorities began preparations Friday to kill tens of thousands of birds suspected of being infected by bird flu. The culling, which will be carried out by poisoning the drinking water of birds within a three-kilometer radius of the kibbutzim thought to be affected by the virus, will begin Sunday in all three kibbutzim.

In addition, health authorities decided to fly four million doses of bird flu vaccines into Israel from Holland. The government will consider vaccinating all birds in Israel in an attempt to prevent the virus from spreading.

The initial confirmation marks the first time that the deadly virus - which has killed at least 97 people worldwide and led to the slaughter of tens of millions of birds - has been detected in Israeli birds.

Government officials attempted to calm the public, saying that the chance of human infection was low and that cooked poultry does not transmit the virus.

"The risk that people will contract [the virus] is very very low," Health Ministry Director General Prof. Avi Yisraeli said Friday.

Ministry officials stressed that there is no reason for people to stop eating poultry, since the virus cannot be transmitted via cooked food. However, poultry farmers said that their main fear is that the public will ignore this reassurance. Indeed, merchants said demand for poultry products, especially turkey, was low Friday. Poultry farmers said a panic-driven consumer boycott of poultry could do their businesses even more harm than the destruction of their flocks.

After the turkey deaths were reported in the south Thursday, the veterinary authorities imposed a quarantine on Ein Hashlosha and Holit as well as two neighboring kibbutzim, Nirim and Kissufim. The quarantine was extended to 10 kilometers Friday.

The quarantine means that no birds can enter or leave the kibbutzim, and
no people will be allowed into the coops except those who must care for the birds that are still alive.

These essential personnel are required to don suitable protective gear - masks, goggles and protective clothing - before entering.

Virus could have come from Egypt or Gaza
The H5N1 virus was detected in neighboring Egypt last month, and Agriculture Minister Ze'ev Boim said that the death of the birds in southern Israel might indicate that the disease entered the country from Egypt.

Another possibility is that the disease entered from Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces therefore asked the Palestinian Authority to deliver blood samples of poultry from Gaza Strip henhouses, in order to determine whether they were the source of the virus.

The suspicion that the virus had reached Israel first emerged Thursday morning, when veterinarians at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha discovered 400 dead birds in one of the coops. At about the same time, nearby Kibbutz Holit reported suspicious deaths among its turkeys. Initial laboratory tests determined that at least one of the birds had died of avian flu, but further testing is needed to determine whether it was the deadly H5N1 strain.

Further deaths were reported at both coops later in the day, and the death toll eventually climbed to more than 1,000.

"They're dropping like flies. I've never seen anything like it," said Dr. Yariv Agur, an expert on avian diseases who visited the Holit coops on Thursday.

Veterinary authorities said Friday that the virus was suspected of having spread to Kibbutz Nachshon as well.

Agur said that anyone who was in contact with the affected birds ought to be given immediate preventive treatment. At Ein Hashlosha, he added, that could include more than just farmers and veterinarians, since there, "the coops are inside the kibbutz, so the virus surely exists in every nook and cranny."

However, the virus can only be caught via close contact with infected birds. As a result, though the Health Ministry also advised anyone who has been in contact with the birds on either kibbutz to contact the local health authority, it does not plan to issue any advisories to the general public or take any special steps that would affect the general public.

Congo....

DRC: 260 chickens, ducks die of suspected avian flu​

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52282&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes&SelectCountry=DRC

KINSHASA, 17 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Agricultural officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo have recorded at least 260 chickens and ducks suspected of having died of the avian flu, Agriculture Minister Constant Ndom Nda said on Thursday.

Announcing this at a news conference in the capital, Kinshasa, he made a public appeal to the United Nations for help to face the danger, and for the rehabilitation of veterinary laboratories in Kinshasa and the southern city of Lumbumbashi.

"We have passed Phase Four, and are no longer simply limited to mobilisation but to active intervention on the ground because we are now perhaps living in danger," he said.

The permanent secretary at the ministry, Ali Ramazani, said it only learnt about the birds on Thursday, which actually died three or four days ago. He said 100 of them died in a single day in Tshikapa, a town in the south-central province of Kasai Occidental. He said the dead birds presented a danger to public health because tests had not been conducted.

"The problem is that most of the dead chicken and ducks in Tshikapa have been eaten," Ramazani said.

There were migratory birds among the dead. Samples of six dead pigeons, also found in Kinshasa, have been sent to South Africa for laboratory analysis. A cat, which ate one of the dead pigeons, also died.

Congo has taken several measures in response to the appearance of the virus in Africa; first in Nigeria and then in Cameroon. All imports of eggs from countries that have reported the avian flu have been banned.

On Monday, Congolese authorities said they had quarantined a ship carrying poultry products imported from Belgium, Germany and Poland. In February, the Congo set up a National Crisis Committee, and opened similar offices in each of the country's 11 provinces.

At the national level, the committee comprises official from the ministries of health, of agriculture, of external trade and of the environment associated with UN humanitarian bodies and NGOs. The committees at the provincial level are charged with surveillance and public information campaigns on the virus.

Poultry imports account for 90 percent of Congo's supplies in the commodity. The remaining 10 percent, or some 20 million free-range poultry, are reared in the country.

Bird flu: Europe bans Israeli bird imports​

The European commissioner has banned imports of live birds and meat from Israel, following the outbreak of the lethal strain of bird flu.

Earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture halted bird exports unprocessed chicken exports from Israel to countries abroad. (AFP)

(03.17.06, 18:38)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3229033,00.html

Democratic Republic of Congo

JPD said:

"The problem is that most of the dead chicken and ducks in Tshikapa have been eaten," Ramazani said.


http://allafrica.com/stories/200603170122.html

Click to expand...

ABC's web site now has a map to track Bird Flu infection in birds and another map of infection in humans. Go to this web site and click on the "Track the Spread" box 1/2 way down on the right side.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/AvianFlu/

from www.orissa.net

Dated March 3, 2006! So this fever has been building for some time. Still no update on it today....

ROURKELA , 03 Mar 2006

Mysterious fever changes its place
The mysterious viral attack of Panposh has now reached Rajgangpur. The collector of Sundargarh has already reached Rajgangpur. 70 inmates of Rourkela special jail have also been affected. Special Medical teams which have gone from Burla and Bhubaneswar and have started investigating the blood samples. Minister of health has said that steps have been taken to meet this challenge.

Sweden

Sweden confirms H5N1 bird flu on game farm ​

www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-18 03:19:16

BRUSSELS, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Sweden has confirmed the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was found in a duck on a game farm in the country, the second case on a commercial farm in the European Union, the EU executive said on Friday.

All birds on the farm, around 500 mallards and 150 pheasants, would be killed and destroyed soon, the European Commission said in a statement.

"This is the second confirmed outbreak of avian influenza H5N1on a commercial farm in the EU, with the first being the outbreak on a turkey farm in the Department of Ain in France in late February," said the statement. Enditem

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/18/content_4314880.htm

Soldiers Hospitalized in Kutaisi Georgia With H5N1 Symptoms ​

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03170601/H5N1_Georgia_Soldiers.html

Recombinomics Commentary
March 16, 2006

Three soldiers were taken to Davit Aghmashenebeli Church Hospital of Kutaisi, to the department of intensive therapy on March 17.
They are the soldiers of the subdivision under the Defence Ministry, dislocated in Kutaisi, Imereti region, western Georgia. The diagnosis of Rodani Chachanidze, Giorgi Gamezardashvili and Nikoloz Narchemashvili is the acute respiratory infection with pneumonia. They were brought to the stationary hospital with the nasal bleeding.

InterpressNews was informed that another 19 soldiers are ill with the similar symptoms but they have no acute forms of the disease like the their abovementioned colleagues.

The above comments on three soldiers with H5N1 bird flu symptoms in Georgia is cause for concern. Kutaisi is near Tbilisi, where two school children died. It is also within 200 miles of Azerbaijan, as well as eastern Turkey, where confirmed H5N1 patients have also died.

Acute respiratory symptoms with pneumonia and nose bleeding are H5N1 bird flu symptoms. Lab results and an update on the condition of the soldiers with mild and severe symptoms would be useful.

Bird flu plan 'may spread virus'​

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2091456,00.html

By Dominic Kennedy

British measures to deal with an outbreak have been attacked as likely to promote wider infection

FARMERS will be free to move birds out of areas hit by avian flu, with permission from a vet, under British plans to deal with an outbreak of the disease.

Britain successfully urged its European partners to agree reforms aimed at helping the poultry and game bird industries to survive the arrival of the virus. Farmers, the countryside lobby and veterinary surgeons have broadly welcomed an approach promoted by the Government as flexible, based on risk assessment and helping to keep rural Britain open for business.

The Times has learnt that Britain successfully proposed easier movement of birds at a crunch European Commission committee meeting last month agreeing a common response to bird flu. Supporters of organic and sustainable farming yesterday accused ministers of a “daft” change designed to help trade which risked repeating the swift spread of foot-and-mouth throughout Britain.

If bird flu is found in poultry, a series of exclusion zones for protection and surveillance will be thrown around the affected farm. Under old rules, the movement of birds out of these areas was restricted to poultry for immediate slaughter.

Under Britain’s EU presidency, Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, chaired a Council of Ministers meeting last December which agreed to ease bird movements.

When experts met to discuss avian flu in Brussels last month, Britain won unanimous backing for its proposal to put these opt-outs into effect.

Europe’s leaders are haunted by the outbreak of bird flu in the Netherlands in 2003, which resulted in 31 million birds being slaughtered and heavy financial losses.

A Commission spokesman said: “Rule changes were requested by a number of member states, including France and the United Kingdom, to reflect their farming practices.”

Europe agreed that ready-to-lay pullets, turkeys for fattening and other poultry or farmed feathered game could be moved out of surveillance zones 15 days after an outbreak. A vet would have to give approval and the birds would need to be kept under surveillance, away from other poultry.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in a consultation letter, said that it was keen to introduce the new regime swiftly. “It offers us more scope for control of disease based on risk assessment of the actual situation faced at the time and is therefore more permissive than the previous Community legislation that it replaces.

“Because we wish to have these up-to-date provisions in place so we can make use of the flexibility they provide, we are looking to have the legislation in place as soon as possible.”

In an assessment of the impact of the rules, Defra highlights the benefits to the poultry industry, which farms 137 million birds, and the game industry which keeps 30 million.

The National Farmers’ Union, which had been urging freer movement of birds, welcomed the reforms.

“Within the poultry industry, we need to keep movements going otherwise it would just collapse overnight,” a spokeswoman said.

But Richard Sanders, policy researcher at Elm Farm, which promotes green farming, said that restrictions on movements were vital. “It doesn’t seem to be particularly sensible to be talking about a more lax regime,” he said. “Everything should be done to be careful.”

Bird flu scare, new laws hit pet shops​

Web posted at: 3/18/2006 1:54:51
Source ::: The Peninsula

Doha: The ongoing bird-flu scare and precautions taken by local authorities to prevent the disease from arriving in Qatar has caused massive losses to pet-shops, which sold exotic birds imported from various countries. With Qatar enforcing the Convention on International Trade on Exotic Species of Flora and Fauna (Cites) laws, such shops are now left with nothing more than aquarium fishes — which have limited takers.

A visit to pet shops revealed the business had lost its charm of earlier days. Gone is the squeaking and squawking of exotic birds such as parrots and love-birds, which once straddled in cages awaiting their future owner. Also gone are some animals such as monkeys and snakes that were sneaked into the country using unconventional means, due to the Cites. While store owners say that the Cites has not affected them much, since nobody wants to commit a crime with international ramifications, the bird flu has hit them pretty hard.

A pet shop owner, speaking on conditions of anonymity said: "Before the Cites was enforced, several pet shop owners brought in and sold monkeys and other exotic animals and could make huge profits selling them. Such animals were in fact booked in advance by rich customers and we could easily pay off our operational expenses with such a sale. After the Cites was enforced, most dealers decided to refrain from such trade since it was illegal. Thus, selling pet birds became the mainstay of many shops."

"Fish are not as popular as birds since they involve a lot of hard work on part of the aquarium owner.

Pet birds, on the other hand, are easier to maintain since the cage has to be cleaned at least once a week and feeding is easy and cheap," he added.

The manager of another pet shop revealed, he had decided against importing permitted species of common birds after his sales staff and helpers expressed apprehensions over bird flu. "Also, local authorities have banned bird imports from many countries. Further, if we do wish to import any common birds for pets, we have to undergo more paperwork and formalities in wake of the bird flu. Moreover, the number of customers wanting to buy birds as pets has also dropped due to the scare. So, we decided to ride out this period by selling only aquarium fish," he added.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Di...th=March2006&file=Local_News2006031815451.xml

Serbian children isolated on bird flu fears

Fri Mar 17, 3:06 PM ET

BELGRADE (AFP) - Four children were placed in isolation, while 24 other people were being monitored after a suspected outbreak of bird flu in western Serbia, the government said.

"As a precaution, the children were hospitalized for continuous medical supervision," Serbia's health ministry said in a statement.

It added that another 24 people had been under "constant medical supervision" for possible symptoms of the virus in the area around the western town of Bajina Basta.

"Their general health is good (but) they are isolated from other patients and we have been following their condition closely," said a doctor from a local hospital.

On Thursday, a teenage boy from a family that said it had a rooster with symptoms of bird flu was released from the same hospital after being cleared of the virus. He remains under observation.

The strain of H5N1 bird flu that can kill humans was detected earlier this month in a swan found dead near Serbia's northwestern border with Croatia and Hungary.

Officials have already implemented stringent measures to prevent the spread of the virus, including the creation of a three-kilometre (two-mile) quarantine zone and isolation of domestic poultry.

The H5N1 virus, which has killed almost 100 people since 2003, mainly in Asia, has also been detected in a number of countries surrounding Serbia, including Albania, Bosnia, Croatia and Hungary.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060317/hl_afp/healthfluserbia_060317200650

WHO: Bird Flu Database Should Be Public

By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA - The U.N. health agency, under criticism for keeping its database on bird flu research out of public view, said some countries and scientists that have contributed their samples and research have yet to agree to share the information.
ADVERTISEMENT

The password-protected database, details of which were first reported on earlier this month in the journal Science and The Wall Street Journal, was created in 2003 at the request of southeast Asian countries first hit by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, said Dick Thompson, spokesman for infectious diseases at the
World Health Organization.

WHO has been urging countries and researchers to allow genetic sequences of the virus stored in the database to be made available publicly, but countries and scientists have so far resisted, Thompson said. He did not name the countries opposed to releasing the information or elaborate on their concerns.

"These are not our viruses and this isn't our information," Thompson told The Associated Press.

Developing countries like China and Vietnam have been traditionally frustrated with data sharing, noting that information from Asian viruses is often incorporated into vaccine research in Western countries without reimbursement or public acknowledgment. Those same developing countries often later cannot afford the finished vaccines.

The first cases of the H5N1 strain were reported in dead birds in
Afghanistan and Denmark, and in
Israel, officials said Friday there was a high chance that the illness caused the death of about 11,000 turkeys in the country's south. Four people in Israel with flu symptoms who came in contact with sick birds have been put in hospital isolation, and at least three farming communities have been placed under quarantine.

The H5N1 virus remains primarily a bird disease, but it has infected at least 177 people and killed 98 in the last three years. So far it has been hard for humans to catch. Virtually all patients had been in close contact with poultry. Experts fear, however, that the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, potentially resulting in millions of deaths worldwide.

WHO is trying to raise international awareness of bird flu and has strongly urged countries to share samples of potential bird flu specimens with international health authorities, but recently the global health body's own transparency has come under scrutiny.

Ilaria Capua, an Italian veterinarian and bird flu expert, bypassed the database after a laboratory in Padua, Italy, identified H5N1 in samples from Nigeria last month, opting instead to log the information from there and from wild swans in Italy in GenBank, a non-restricted database of the U.S.
National Institutes of Health.

"I did not want to put the sequence in a database with restricted access," she told The AP in Italy. "If this is truly the most serious public health threat in the last 100 years, I believe there is no time to waste."

The database contains some 2,300 genetic sequences of the H5N1 virus, about a third of the global total held by laboratories and research institutes, Thompson said. WHO has no estimates for how many people have access, but it is available to countries which have donated sequences and where the health body's collaborating centers are located. Scientists contributing sequences are also privy to the online bank.

Thompson said he sympathized with Capua's motives, but said criticism of WHO has been misplaced. The health agency, he explained, agreed to the privacy of the online database demanded by countries so that samples could be obtained as quickly as possible and more research could be undertaken to halt H5N1's spread.

"The point was initially to allow us to have access to these samples," Thompson said. "It's not like WHO is trying to prevent scientists everywhere from getting this information."

___

Associated Press correspondent Ariel David in Rome contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060317/ap_on_he_me/bird_flu_1

Watch on Jalgaon boy
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Mumbai, March 17: An 11-year-old boy with mild flu symptoms has been put in an isolation ward in a Jalgaon hospital.

This is the first instance of avian influenza being suspected in a human being in the Maharashtra district, where culling operations are nearing completion.

The boy was admitted in the Chopda Civil Hospital in the northeastern part of Jalgaon district.

Officials said the step was taken as a precaution after the boy reported fever.

State health secretary Vijay Satbir Singh said no one else has been admitted to any isolation ward in the four bird flu-infected zones.

The culling operations in Jalgaon are almost done with 65,000 birds culled till 8 pm. The target of culling 73,000 birds is likely to be achieved either by late tonight or tomorrow morning, sources said.

In Delhi, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said there was no cause for panic on bird flu as it was a “localised event”. “There is nothing to worry. The situation is completely under control.”

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060318/asp/nation/story_5981522.asp