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(CIDRAP News) – Avian influenza has surfaced in poultry flocks in Thailand for the first time in 3 months, according to reports from the country.

The disease has broken out among birds at five locations in Suphan Buri province, about 60 miles north of Bangkok, according to several news services. The Associated Press reported that the disease was found in 10 fighting cocks in five villages where outbreaks occurred in 2004.

(CIDRAP News) – The Philippines, previously free of the avian influenza that has spread rapidly across Asia, has reported its first cases.

Government announcements today say the H5 strain was identified in ducks on an isolated farm near the town of Calumpit in Bulacan province, north of Manila. The ducks showed no symptoms; the disease was detected during standard testing when a trader applied to export duck eggs.

(CIDRAP News) – Some healthcare workers who were exposed to SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) early in the epidemic became infected without ever falling ill, according to a recent report in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – International health agencies said yesterday that their plan to battle avian influenza will focus on educating small-scale farmers, segregating animal species on backyard farms, and vaccinating poultry.

(CIDRAP News) – The recent outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza among wild waterfowl in western China could provide a launching pad to spread the disease throughout Asia and beyond, according to two reports published by leading science journals today.

(CIDRAP News) – International health organizations have come up with a plan to control H5N1 avian influenza within a decade and want more than $100 million in donations to fund it, according to reports from a conference in Malaysia.

(CIDRAP News) – The members of a new government board that will guide efforts to keep terrorists from exploiting the fruits of federally funded biotechnology research were announced this week by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that the threat of an influenza pandemic remains the same, despite recent findings that the H5N1 virus has not grown more infectious for humans.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States' second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was in a 12-year-old cow that came from a Texas herd and would have been made into pet food if it hadn't been flagged for BSE testing, federal officials announced yesterday evening.

(CIDRAP News) – An international team of experts has concluded that the H5N1 avian influenza virus in Vietnam has not recently improved its ability to spread to or among humans, according to news reports published today.

The finding suggests that the immediate risk of a flu pandemic is lower than previously believed, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report.

(CIDRAP News) – About 5,000 migratory birds have died of avian influenza at a wildlife sanctuary in northwestern China, close to five times as many as reported previously, United Nations officials who visited the site said today.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States' second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed last week after a series of additional tests were run on samples from a beef cow that had originally tested negative last November.

(CIDRAP News) – Pandemic influenza could kill 540,000 Americans and sicken up to 66.9 million, according to a recent report by the nonprofit organization Trust for America's Health (TFAH).

(CIDRAP News) – You've got to gather a lot of eggs to supply the world with influenza vaccine, but that might change before long.

(CIDRAP News) – A Japanese farm is expected to cull most of its 25,000 chickens to prevent the spread of a highly pathogenic avian influenza, identified as A H5N2, that has killed about 800 chickens, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – As poultry were being culled in China and Vietnam to prevent further spread of avian influenza outbreaks this week, international experts were visiting both countries to better understand how the H5N1 virus is behaving.

(CIDRAP News) – The range of animal species that can contribute to the spread of West Nile virus (WNV) may be much broader than experts have believed, according to a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

(CIDRAP News) – A refrigerated form of MedImmune’s FluMist intranasal influenza vaccine has been shown to be as effective as the standard frozen form in stimulating the immune system, the company says.

(CIDRAP News) – West Nile virus has made its US debut in the heartland this year, with Kansas reporting the first human case.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of one human illness, the CDC announced on Jun 20. The infection had already been found in birds, horses, and mosquitoes in 14 states this year.

(CIDRAP News) – More human and poultry cases of H5N1 influenza are coming to light in Southeast Asia, with reports of two new human illnesses in Vietnam and a second poultry outbreak in China.

Two people from northern Vietnam were admitted to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi over the weekend and later tested positive for the H5N1 virus, according to hospital director Tran Quy, who was quoted in the China Daily newspaper and other media reports.