Bird flu

Abuja -- 13 August 2008 -- Animal health specialists warn a new strain of highly pathogenic bird flu in Nigeria - which has previously not been recorded in sub-Saharan Africa - increases the risk of avian influenza spreading to other countries in West Africa.

Nigeria's bird flu officials blame infected migratory birds from Europe or Central Asia for the spread of the new strain of H5N1 to the country.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization says the newly discovered virus strain is genetically different from the strain that circulated in Nigeria in 2006 and 2007.

The U.N. food agency says the new strain is similar to ones previously identified in Italy, Afghanistan and Iran, last year.    » read more »

Novel Project Could Help Thwart Worldwide Influenza Threat

LA JOLLA, CA, April 14, 2008—An international group of American and Turkish research scientists, led by Sea Lane Biotechnologies, has created the first comprehensive monoclonal antibody libraries against avian influenza (H5N1) using samples from survivors of the 2005/2006 "bird flu" outbreak in Turkey.

H5N1 virus    » read more »

08 April 2008 -- Chinese health officials have confirmed earlier speculation that a father contracted bird flu from his son last December.

Researchers from Beijing's Chinese Center for Disease Control said a 24-year-old man spread the disease to his 52-year-old father in China's eastern province of Jiangsu. The son died, but the father survived.

H5N1 virions: Photo Credit: Cynthia Goldsmith / Jackie Katz / CDC

In a report released Tuesday, the researchers said tests showed the two men were infected with almost genetically identical strains of the H5N1 virus. They also found that 91 people who had come into close contact with the men had not been infected with the virus.    » read more »

04 February 2008 -- Indonesia's health ministry says a 29-year-old woman has died of bird flu, raising the death toll in the southeast Asian nation to 102.

Officials say the woman died on Saturday in a Jakarta hospital. She is at least the eighth person to die this year from the disease.

The woman visited her parents recently and officials say their neighbors kept chicks. It was unclear, however, whether the chickens were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

Most bird flu cases in Indonesia involve contact with infected poultry.    » read more »

24 January 2008 -- The United Nations is warning that bird flu outbreaks have spread to 15 countries, making the disease a global threat that requires close monitoring.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released a statement Thursday, calling for more monitoring and greater efforts to contain the virus.

The outbreaks have been reported since December and involve mostly domesticated poultry infected with the virulent H5N1 strain.    » read more »

23 January 2008 -- Indian officials are struggling to contain a serious outbreak of bird flu that has spread across nearly half of the eastern state of West Bengal.

India's Farm Minister, Sharad Pawar, said Wednesday the virus has been detected in nine of the state's 19 districts. Neighboring states are being asked to send medical staff to help deal with the outbreak.

West Bengal officials have set a new target of slaughtering 300,000 chickens a day and increased the number of veterinary teams to 600.    » read more »

15 January 2008 -- Indian health officials have confirmed that an outbreak of bird flu in the eastern part of the country, near Bangladesh, is the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

The new outbreak has already killed about 35,000 birds in the state of West Bengal. The state's minister for animal resources, Anisur Rahaman, Tuesday said the poultry deaths were reported from farms in the Morgram village in the Birbhum District, and in south Dinajpur.    » read more »