News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese agriculture officials today confirmed the H7N9 virus in chickens and pigeons from Shanghai markets, providing new clues about how humans may have been exposed to the virus, which has since yesterday been detected in two more people.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) have announced a global campaign to control foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), a highly contagious livestock disease that does not threaten humans but can be economically devastating.

(CIDRAP News) – Mexican veterinary authorities are intensifying avian influenza control efforts in a region that houses several large commercial farms after further tests determined that the strain responsible for more than 200,000 bird deaths at three farms is the highly pathogenic H7N3 subtype.

The events represent the first highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks in Mexican flocks since the country battled H5N2 in the mid 1990s.