By recreating an extinct virus that killed as many as 50 million people, scientists race to defeat avian flu before it evolves into a deadlier form. Three vials of saline solution, each about the size of a ballpoint pen cap, held the genes of the virus responsible for the Spanish Flu of 1918--the deadliest influenza pandemic ever to hit mankind. Then, 79 years later, another strain of avian flu jumped straight from birds to humans. By inserting the genes into human kidney cells, Tumpey...

adults have heard about avian flu, and have talked about it, but don't know much about it, according to a survey of 1,200 Americans. A majority of Americans are aware of the presence of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in people, birds, and poultry globally, but many are unaware that there have been no cases in humans or animals in the United States, according to the survey by the Food Policy Institute at the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. A majority of Americans...

THE dream of cheap, easy-to-store, needle-free vaccines is closer to reality after Japanese researchers created a strain of rice that protects against cholera. Mucosal infections are caused by pathogens that invade and infect victims through the mucosa, the wet cellular surface of the mouth, nose or genito-urinary tract. In trials with mice, the rice vaccine provided a "first line of defence", directly at mucosal sites, as well as producing systemic immunity. He said several groups...

So for three years, representatives of industry, academia and government have investigated the fastest, cheapest and, they say, most humane way to dispatch birds en masse. Three commercial plants keep busy plucking, skinning, and carving chickens in Fredericksburg, a village lined with banners displaying its unofficial logo, a chicken. The industry prefers the term "depopulate," but no euphemism softens the raw reality of putting down birds by the tens of thousands. Almost 140 farms...

EST Richard Bowden - AHN News Writer Geelong, Australia (AHN) - Australian scientists at the Commonwealth, Scientific, Industrial and Research Organization (CSIRO) are locked in a race with British scientists at Cambridge University to develop a genetically modified chicken immune to bird flu. EST Richard Bowden - AHN News Writer Geelong, Australia (AHN) - Australian scientists at the Commonwealth, Scientific, Industrial and Research Organization (CSIRO) are locked in a race with British...

Tesco said all its chicken was free range, adding: "Like all raw meat, chicken does contain naturally occurring bacteria but is safe to eat when properly cooked - this is why we put clear cooking instructions on our packs. The images claimed to show two-week old birds attacked and eaten alive by vermin and others with "hock burns" on their legs caused by ammonia from chicken waste. And as for all this soil association lark and "chemical free" food, the soil association allows any number of...