The take-home message? Veterinarians are at greater risk of contracting more virulent forms of avian influenza if they hatch in the United States. Iowa City, Iowa - 06/01/2007 - DVMs who work with birds have significantly higher levels of antibodies fighting avian influenza strains compared to control groups, according to a University of Iowa study. Because of this, we suggest that veterinarians should be considered for inclusion on priority-access lists for pandemic influenza vaccines and...

Malaysia has reported no human cases of the infection, but Wednesday's incident was the first time avian influenza had been found in the nation since March 21 last year when several chickens tested positive for the virus. Malaysian commercial farms have not been hit by bird flu, but Singapore has suspended imports of chicken and eggs from Selangor. The disease had been limited to three villages after authorities culled about 8,000 ducks and chickens in the central state of Selangor, where...

Examinations of nearly 300 specimens sent to the WHO's collaboration laboratory in Hong Kong have shown that the bird flu virus in Indonesia had so far not mutated, Antara news agency on Saturday quoted M Zoelkarnain Hasan, head of public communication affairs of the AI Control Unit at the Agriculture Ministry's animal husbandry directorate general, as saying. Examinations of nearly 300 specimens sent to the WHO's collaboration laboratory in Hong Kong have shown that the bird flu virus in...

School kids are helping keep chickens disease-free in Mozambique, and the organizer of the program says it could help other African countries in the battle against bird flu. The children are trained on how to use eye-droppers to give the vaccine to the chickens. Heifer said it decided to use village schoolchildren because of the challenges of past vaccination programs and a shortage of qualified veterinary workers in rural Africa. Geneti Debia, the organization's program officer for...

The CSIRO team is working on a genetic change that could be bred into chickens, making them immune to avian influenza. CSIRO scientists in Victoria are in an international race to develop a genetically modified chicken immune to the killer bird flu. The project builds on work by the CSIRO into ribonucleic acid (RNA) and adapts it to poultry so that chickens are unable to catch bird flu. The super chickens would have to be labelled genetically modified but would still taste like regular chicken.

The Punjab poultry industry, which was ranked first in India in 1984, has dropped to the seventh due to what farmers' term as the anti-poultry attitude of the government. Punjab poultry farmers see big market players as threat to their industry. Agitated poultry farmers claim that they experiencing huge losses due to natural calamities and with the presence of mega companies. Punjab is the first state in the country to introduce contract farming at the government level. The Punjab poultry...