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(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today it is banning cattle parts that could contain the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) agent from food supplements and cosmetics, but it is not yet ready to ban those parts from all feed for animals, including pets.

(CIDRAP News) – In the face of new outbreaks, the World Health Organization (WHO) today expressed renewed concern about the implications of H5N1 avian influenza for human health and appealed for increased scrutiny of infections in animals and humans.

(CIDRAP News) – Deadly strains of avian influenza have resurfaced on one poultry farm in China and two in Thailand.

China's first outbreak of H5N1 avian flu since March was reported Jul 3 at a farm in Anhui province in the east-central part of the country, according to Xinhua, China's official news service. The national avian flu reference laboratory confirmed yesterday that the disease was due to an H5N1 virus, Xinhua said.

(CIDRAP News) – More Americans are being told to seek flu vaccination and more vaccine will be available in the coming influenza season, as authorities try to improve people's odds against the persistent and sometimes deadly influenza virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Arizona continues to bear most of the current burden of West Nile virus (WNV) infections, with 38 of the 57 human cases reported nationwide, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – Further testing has ruled out bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the second of two cattle for which initial screening tests were inconclusive, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – More US troops and civilian defense workers serving overseas will be getting smallpox and anthrax vaccinations in coming months, the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Three months after Vietnam declared itself free of avian influenza, the disease has struck there again, causing the loss of at least 4,500 chickens in a southern province, according to news services.

A Reuters report today said chickens on three farms in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu died or were destroyed after testing positive for an H5 avian flu virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Follow-up testing has ruled out bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in an animal for which an earlier screening test was inconclusive, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this afternoon.

(CIDRAP News) – Another inconclusive result on a rapid screening test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was announced late yesterday afternoon by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Jun 30 (CIDRAP News) – As federal agencies near the Aug 12 deadline for full enforcement of the food security provisions of the 2002 Bioterrorism Act, authorities say the food industry is getting better at following the new rules.

Editor's Note: The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), where the research described was accomplished, was inadvertently omitted from the list of author affiliations in the 4th paragraph below; the article was updated Jul 1, 2004, to include this information.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture reported an "inconclusive," or preliminary positive, test result in its screening program for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) Jun 25 and is awaiting confirmatory test results.

(CIDRAP News) – Avian influenza cropped up in a flock of 14 poultry about 4½ miles from where two large commercial chicken flocks were destroyed because of the same virus in May, the Texas Animal Health Commission said (TAHC) yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – A substance that was smeared on dairy cows near Seattle, killing three and sickening seven others, was a chromium compound, but the episode did not endanger consumers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said late yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The possibility of a smallpox outbreak highlights a key threat to America's public health system: What if a person needs a vaccine but there is no nurse to give the shot?

America's growing shortage of qualified public health workers could undermine terrorism preparedness, according to a recent report from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).

(CIDRAP News) – Twelve of the 30 recent cases of a disease thought to be Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Sudan have been reclassified as measles, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.