News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Three provinces in eastern China that have already reported several H7N9 avian flu infections each announced a new case today, bringing the country's total to 64 cases, according to official and media sources.

(CIDRAP News) – The tentative detection of the novel swine influenza H1N1 virus in an Alberta swine herd over the weekend shook Canada's pork industry and raised concern about the potential for new hybrid viruses to emerge.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health authorities in Canada yesterday announced that an H5N2 avian influenza virus was responsible for a recent mild illness outbreak on a commercial turkey farm in British Columbia's Fraser Valley.

(CIDRAP News) – Canadian authorities have confirmed that an H5 avian influenza virus, probably low-pathogenic, has surfaced on a turkey farm in southern British Columbia.

Canadian news agencies said authorities were preparing to cull up to 60,000 turkeys on the farm near Abbotsford, southeast of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley.

(CIDRAP News) – Canadian officials are investigating the possibility of an avian influenza outbreak at a turkey farm in British Columbia (BC), a day after animal health officials in Bangladesh reported the H5N1 virus struck three more sites.

(CIDRAP News) – The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report examining the results several developed nations and the European Union achieved when they consolidated oversight of food safety in a single agency, a step often advocated in the United State for solving some of the problems linked to contaminated imported and domestic food.

(CIDRAP News) –Officials in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam have reported new outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry this week.

In Bangladesh, an official from the government's livestock department said the H5N1 virus was detected at three farms in the northern part of the country, Reuters reported today. Workers culled about 6,000 chickens, which were buried over the last 2 days, the report said.

(CIDRAP News) – Officials in Bangladesh and Thailand recently reported new H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks on chicken farms, and Canadian authorities today confirmed an outbreak of H7N3 influenza on a commercial poultry farm in Saskatchewan.

The outbreak in Bangladesh occurred in the country's northwestern Bogra district, about 105 miles from Dhaka, the capital, according to a report yesterday from Xinhua, China's state news agency.