News Stories relating to "bird flu"

The great fear about bird flu is that the virus will mutate, so that it can pass between humans (the way regular flu does) and not just between poultry and people. A father in China has been diagnosed with bird flu that he probably caught from his sick son. But this MAY be because they share the same genes!

Researchers note that the...

Two years ago, the dreaded bird flu arrived in the UK along with a parrot imported from South America. Now bird flu has been found there on a turkey farm.

Scientists are working hard to learn the secrets of bird flu?before it takes us by surprise. But the virus could enter the population from the scientists themselves, if we aren?t careful. For instance, a lab in Texas recently almost leaked the deadly bird flu virus out into the environment.

Last April, a researcher at a lab at the...

Strange bird deaths continue, this time with thousands of them falling out of the sky in Esperance, Australia.

In theaustraliannews.com.au, Amanda O'Brien quotes conservation official Mike Fitzgerald as saying, "It's very substantial. We estimate several thousand birds are dead, although we don't have a clear number because of the large...

A recent spate of strange bird deaths have increased worries about the possible pandemic of bird flu. On January 8, police in Austin Texas shut down a central area of the city after dozens of birds were found dead in the streets. The dead birds were pigeons, sparrows and grackles, which all are birds known to be affected by the bird flu virus,...

Scientists who are warning us about a possible bird flu epidemic are comparing it with the 1918 Spanish flu influenza epidemic which killed somewhere between 40 and 100 million people worldwide during the 18 months it lasted. Researchers are analyzing that virus to try to figure out why it was so lethal. Other researchers have discovered a...

Wearing light solar-powered GPS satellite transmitters, wild swans from Mongolia are flying across Eurasia, scientists below them are tracking their journeys on computers in order to figure out how wild birds may be involved in the spread of bird flu.

This research, being carried out by US and international groups of scientists, is...

Indonesia is currently the country that is the most affected by bird flu. So far, there is no concrete evidence that the virus is passing from person to person, but poultry infected with the disease have been found in almost every one of the country?s provinces and the 44 human deaths from the disease are spread evenly across the country. Has...

Scientists have now announced that migrating birds DO NOT spread avian flu, but the birds you buy in the supermarket DO spread the food poisoning known as salmonella, so wash your hands (and all surfaces) after handling them. Like beef cattle, chickens are given antibiotics in their feed, which can promote antibiotic-resistant superbugs in...

Physicians have been worried that there will not be enough star anise available to create the Tamiflu drug needed if there is a bird flu epidemic. Now chemists have discovered an alternative medicine, from the sweetgum tree, which is widely grown throughout the US.

Bird flu started in the huge bird markets in Asia, where chickens and ducks are sold. Poultry farms in the US are safer because of they way these businesses are run in the US: one company controls an entire farm?from egg production to chickens.

US Poultry expert Todd Applegate says, "The poultry industry is the most vertically integrated...

Newswise - In the event of a bird flu influenza pandemic, the world's vaccine manufacturers will be in a race against time. But now researchers at the University of Wisconsin, working with scientists at the University of Tokyo, have discovered a quicker, more efficient way to make flu vaccine. As soon as an effective avian flu...

Newswise - In the midst of widespread fears about a bird flu pandemic, some health experts are advising that if you cook poultry and eggs thoroughly, you have little chance of contracting avian flu. In the US, we have already been warned to avoid undercooked chicken, since all of our poultry is infected with the salmonella...

We recently posted an article advising all our readers to keep the prescription drug Tamiflu on hand to fight the symptoms of bird flu. But viruses mutate constantly, and bird flu is no exception. It may already be too late, because avian flu is becoming resistant to Tamiflu, despite the fact that it's being stockpiled by countries all over the...