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(CIDRAP News) – Texas officials announced today that the state's outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) has been eradicated, after 352 noncommercial poultry flocks in the area were found to be free of the disease.

Meanwhile, a battle with a different strain of AI in southern British Columbia continued, as Canadian officials said yesterday they had confirmed the disease on a seventh farm in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is delaying the implementation of food security rules that would require most food businesses to keep detailed records on their handling of food products and would allow the FDA to hold potentially contaminated food.

Editor's note: This story was revised Apr 1, 2004, to include additional information from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – An experimental vaccine developed by federal researchers prevented the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus from reproducing in laboratory mice, according to a report published in the Apr 1 issue of Nature.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday announced it has certified seven state laboratories to help test cattle samples for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the agency's expanded BSE surveillance program.

(CIDRAP News) – Following through on plans announced yesterday, Vietnamese authorities today said the nation has defeated avian flu and that poultry operations can return to normal.

(CIDRAP News) – Vietnamese agriculture officials said Vietnam would declare itself free of avian influenza tomorrow, major news services reported today.

Bui Quang Anh, director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Veterinary Department, said today that officials will make an announcement tomorrow afternoon so that the country can start rebuilding its poultry flocks, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers report that they have mapped the complete genome of the intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium parvum, an achievement that they hope will lead to new strategies for battling a hard-to-treat illness.

(CIDRAP News) – In the face of recent avian influenza outbreaks and resulting import bans on US poultry, a partnership of government and industry groups is moving toward a major increase in testing for the disease in US flocks.

(CIDRAP News) – An experimental plague vaccine completely protected mice that were bitten by fleas carrying the plague pathogen, in a study that reproduced the natural transmission pathway for bubonic plague, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID).

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it sees a lower risk for further cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States than was described recently by an international panel of experts on the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Dutch researchers report that they have discovered a new human coronavirus—a close relative of the agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)—that causes respiratory illness in infants and immunocompromised adults.

(CIDRAP News) – South Korea today reported its first outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in more than 6 weeks.

News of the Korean outbreak came 2 days after Vietnam reported its 16th human death from H5N1 avian flu and 3 days after international animal health officials again warned Asian countries not to declare victory over the disease too soon.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed today that it has licensed two different rapid screening tests for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) for use in USDA laboratories.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its recommendations for next season's influenza vaccine, calling for inclusion of the A Fujian viral strain that caused most flu cases in the United States this winter.

(CIDRAP News) – Two air-purifying respirators (APRs), or gas masks, have been named as the first such devices to be certified under a federal program to test masks for protecting emergency workers from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) exposures.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moved a step closer this week to banning the use of a fluoroquinolone antibiotic in poultry on the ground that the drug promotes the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can harm human health.

(CIDRAP News) – Nine out of 250 people who received their first smallpox shots in a recent study reacted with a variety of self-limiting skin rashes, a side effect that could be mistaken for a serious reaction to the vaccine, according to a report in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – Thailand reported its eighth fatal human case of H5N1 avian influenza today, while China announced it was lifting quarantine orders for the last two of 49 areas affected by the disease, according to news service reports.

Editor's note: Some material was added to this story Mar 16.

(CIDRAP News) – A study in which mice developed antibodies to the SARS coronavirus indicates that efforts to make a SARS vaccine that would trigger the production of antibodies are on the right track, according to federal health officials.