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July 05, Nature — Multiple introductions of H5N1 in Nigeria. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that this deadly virus first arrived in Africa from different sources. As the avian influenza virus H5N1 swept from Asia across Russia to Europe, Nigeria was the first country in Africa to report the emergence of this highly pathogenic virus. Researchers analyzed H5N1 sequences in poultry from two different farms in Lagos state and found that three H5N1 lineages were independently introduced through routes that coincide with the flight paths of migratory birds, although independent trade imports cannot be excluded.

Avian influenza, or influenza A (H5N1), has 3 of the 4 properties necessary to cause a serious pandemic: It can infect people, nearly all people are immunologically naive, and it is highly lethal. The Achilles heel of the virus is the lack of sustained human–human transmission. Fortunately, among the 124 cases reported through 30 May 2006, nearly all were acquired by direct contact with poultry. Unfortunately, the capability for efficient human–human transmission requires only a single mutation by a virus that is notoriously genetically unstable, hence the need for a new vaccine each year for seasonal influenza. Influenza A (H5N1)...

We're hearing more about avian flu these days, and there's some reason to think it's a threat. A controversial Chinese study suggests that human beings were being infected several years ago, without that being recognized. That might be comforting: The longer it's been around without spreading human-to-human, the less likely a mutation permitting such transmission might seem. Unfortunately, it's no longer just a matter of speculation. The World Health Organization has now confirmed its first case of human-to-human transmission. That's still a long way from a strain that's as virulent as ordinary flu, but it's another step closer to something...

New research suggests that the source of bird flu may be factory farm chicken feces that are then used as commercial fish food and fertilizer in fields thus exposing humans and other birds to the H5N1 Avian Influenza virus (AI or bird flu).[1] This is thought to explain some of the outbreaks in China as well as the recent cluster of human deaths in Sumatra. Some feel that this may explain the reservoirs of avian flu in the wild - factory farms are infecting wild fish and birds. Government officials have been warning about the threat of migratory wild birds...

The USDA is still blocking US companies from testing their own beef to prove it is BSE free. This is hurting US beef exports to Japan. The USDA claims we need the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) which they developed to help with beef exports to Japan. With one hand the USDA forces heavy handed, expensive regulations on all livestock owners in the form of NAIS. With the other hand the USDA blocks a simple, foolproof test, that they developed, which would open up foreign markets to US beef. What gives? Is this all just an excuse for the government...

The big current excuse for Premises ID and the USDA's proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is that wild birds were going to migrate over the poles, bring Avian Influenza (H5N1) to Alaska and then down the west coast of the United States. The scenerio presented by experts was that then it would come eastward to all the other state and infect our backyard flocks who would then kill off millions of people in the United States. There are a few problems with this. Chickens are terminal hosts to bird flu. It isn't normally transmissible to humans. Sure, if you...

Before it was terrorism. Then it was mad cow disease. Now the government is using fears of Avian Influenza (H5N1 or bird flu) to scare people into accepting reductions in their freedoms and more government control over our lives. The latest trampling of our constitutional rights is in the form of Premise ID and the USDA's proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Maryland has bill HB709 to register all domestic birds including pet birds. Vermont is pushing Premise ID for bird flu prevention. ABC plans to do a TV movie about Avian Flu. Everyone wants in on the fear mongering....

ROME, June 23 — An Indonesian who died after catching the A(H5N1) bird flu virus from his 10-year-old son represents the first confirmed case of human-to-human transmission of the disease, a World Health Organization investigation of an unusual family cluster has concluded, the agency said Friday. The W.H.O. investigators also discovered that the virus had mutated slightly when the son had the disease, although not in any way that would allow the virus to pass more readily among people. "Yes, it is slightly altered, but in a way that viruses commonly mutate," said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the agency...

Jun 23, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – The recent family cluster of H5N1 avian influenza cases in Indonesia marks the first time laboratory tests confirmed human-to-human transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) told reporters today. According to news reports, WHO officials said the virus mutated slightly when it infected a 10-year-old boy, and he passed the altered virus on to his father. Detection of the altered strain in both the boy and his father was evidence of direct transmission. The mutation did not make the virus more transmissible, and the boy's father, who died of the illness, did not pass it...

China had bird flu case two years earlier than Beijing admits: researchers Wed Jun 21, 05:08 PM EST By Helen Branswell (CP) - In an extraordinary turn of events, Chinese researchers have contradicted Beijing's official version of the country's H5N1 human infection timeline, revealing a Chinese man died of H5N1 avian flu fully two years before China reported its first human case to the World Health Organization in November 2005. The eight researchers reported in a letter in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine - a letter they attempted to withdraw Wednesday - on the genetic blueprint of H5N1 virus...

OTTAWA/WINNIPEG (Reuters) - Canada has detected a case of H5 avian flu in the eastern province of Prince Edward Island and plans further testing over the weekend to determine whether it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, government officials announced on Friday. A gosling in a small backyard poultry flock in the western end of the tiny province contracted the disease but there is a low risk of human illness from the outbreak, officials said. The last Canadian outbreak occurred in November 2005 on the other side of the country, in British Columbia, and involved low-pathogenic H5N2 strain. In that...

AP MEDICAL WRITER JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The World Health Organization has concluded that human-to-human transmission likely occurred among seven relatives who developed bird flu in Indonesia. In a report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, WHO experts said the cluster's index case was probably infected by sick birds and spread the disease to six family members. One of those cases, a boy, then likely infected his father, it said. The U.N. agency stressed the virus has not mutated and that no cases were detected beyond the family. Seven of the eight relatives died last month, but one was buried before...

H5N1 avian flu viruses trigger worse disease in adult cells than in children. Some avian influenza viruses, and particularly the H5N1 subtype, appear to prompt the human immune system to over−produce important pathogen−fighting chemicals called chemokines, triggering an exaggerated response that creates more damage than it fixes, a new study suggests. The study shows that at least with older versions of the H5N1 virus, this response −− referred to as a cytokine storm −− was significantly more acute in adults than children. The findings could help to explain why the 1997 outbreak of H5N1 was far more deadly for adults...

The Japanese government has banned imports of Hungarian poultry and poultry products, including foie gras, after the discovery of avian influenza in Hungary, the Agriculture, the Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said Tuesday. In the wake of the ban, Japan may suffer a shortage ...

Crouching down to take a closer look, Rossi inspects the dropping left by the large sea duck and then carefully dabs at the greenish mound with a swab before breaking off the tip into a plastic vial. "He laid a fresh one there. We really want the freshest stuff," said Rossi, Alaska district supervisor for the USDA's wildlife services. The swab of eider dropping is one of 50,000 such field samples from wild birds that federal and local agencies aim to collect in America this year and test for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. Officials also want another...

YANGZHOU, CHUZHOU and CHENZHOU, China - Having learned a bitter lesson from covering up the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in early 2003, the central government of China now is said to be taking a more positive, responsible attitude in dealing with avian influenza, or bird flu. But that hasn't filtered down to the provinces. >snip< Beijing has punished some local officials for their incompetence in dealing with bird-flu outbreaks. For instance, in May it was announced that five officials in Dazhu county in Sichuan province had been sacked for of dereliction of duty because they did not report...

The Bird Flu Breakdown Part 1: Two Children in Vietnam Liam Scheff - Wednesday, May 24th, 2006The much anticipated bird-flu plague has yet to emerge, despite much hue and cry. This comes as no surprise to those of us who are familiar with the machinations of the WHO (World Health Organization), CDC and NIH, and their pharmaceutical partners. But, for those more trusting of public health authorities who wish to know more about the making of public health policy, I thought I’d review some of the bright and shiny inconsistencies that have come into view on the bird flu.Stray...

ALERT - Vitamin A is probably simple antidote to bird flu, mainstream literature shows Hold those billions, Vitamin A blocks bird flu lung devastationNew AIDS Review - 11/20/2005All the panic over H5N1 seems a little overblown when you consider that the virus has been around for eight years at least without morphing into a deadly human version that can sweep the globe from human to human. The very same H5N1 was the cause of the "Avian flu" outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997. But just to reduce the hysteria a few more notches, we have decided to relent on our...

Migrating wild birds have played and will likely continue to play a role in transporting highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, or bird flu, over long distances. This was among the main conclusions of a two-day international scientific conference called by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). But the conference, attended by over 300 scientists from more than 100 countries also recognized that the virus was mainly spread through poultry trade, both legal and illegal. "Several presentations at the Conference, some supported by recent publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, implicated wild birds...

ST. PETERSBURG, June 5 (RIA Novosti) - Provisional results of bird flu vaccine trials on human volunteers will be available in two weeks, one of the doctors leading the tests said Monday. Oleg Kiselyov, the director of the St. Petersburg-based Influenza Research Institute, said the trials were focusing on establishing a precise vaccine dose. "The phrase 'vaccine tests' is not entirely appropriate," he said. "We are conducting trials to calculate the dosage." Kiselyov said the vaccine presented no danger to the 52 volunteers who had received it intravenously. Kiselyov said the volunteers would be revaccinated in 28 days from the...