News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – A new influenza virus discovered in Missouri pigs has a combination of genes from avian and swine flu viruses, supporting the theory that pigs can serve as a mixing vessel for flu viruses and a potential source for a human pandemic strain, according to a report published yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The initial epidemiologic report, released today, on the United Kingdom's recent outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in Suffolk said the source of the virus is unknown but could have been wild birds.

(CIDRAP News) – Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) was confirmed on a fifth farm in Surrey in southern England this week, but another feared outbreak near Birmingham in the central part of the country was ruled out.

Sep 13, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – British officials who are investigating the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) said today that initials tests show the virus strain matches the strain found in outbreaks that surfaced in late July at two nearby farms.

(CIDRAP News) – English officials announced today that foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has been confirmed in cattle on another farm in Surrey, less than a week after announcing that the disease had been eradicated from the area.

The farm is near the town of Egham, about 10 miles from the site of two earlier FMD outbreaks, the London Telegraph reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Britain's recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) were likely caused by faulty wastewater drains at a laboratory facility, which contaminated soil that was then spread by trucks to a nearby cattle farm, British authorities announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – As British veterinary officials continued to investigate outbreaks of food-and-mouth disease (FMD) at two farms this week, worries about possible outbreaks at two other sites in England were dispelled.

Animal handlers at a farm in Kent and a zoo in Surrey reported suspicious lesions in animals, but test results were negative, and the government eased restrictions on livestock movements in those areas.

(CIDRAP News) – A preliminary British government report says the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak discovered last week near London was very probably caused by a leak from a local laboratory.

(CIDRAP News) – Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), a cattle disease that devastated the British beef industry in 2001, has resurfaced in England, possibly because of a laboratory leak.

(CIDRAP News) – In a major effort to track influenza viruses in nature and learn more about how they interact with the human body, the federal government this week announced a $23-million-a-year program to fund research centers at six institutions around the country.