The poultry industry also has taken steps to keep the birds from infecting each other with avian influenza and other diseases. The line includes an heirloom breed called American bronze, which is on the small side and resembles the wild turkeys that the Indians shared with the Pilgrims. Diestel recently launched an organic line, meaning that the feed is from farms free of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. But they fetch a high price per pound from people who like the idea of raising...

WHO said the virus, which passes from birds to humans, had killed 200 of the 350 people confirmed as infected worldwide. WHO avian flu expert David Nabarro told journalists in Geneva it was still feared that the H5N1 strain, the most dangerous ever recorded, could be the virus that mutates and causes the next human influenza pandemic by passing from human to human. WHO was co-ordinating preparations and overseeing moves to speed up vaccine production globally but there was another two to...

Hewitt is regional sales manager for Volk Enterprises, which supplies packaging materials to the meat and poultry industries. His house, for example, has 90 acres of vacant land behind it. As adults, they've lived in the same north Georgia area for years. Both Hewitt and Tart campaigned that they would fight the extension of sewer service into the city and keep the small town character. Both defeated incumbents in the town that has been incorporated for just one year. He was elected by the...

JAKARTA: A 31-year-old Indonesian man has died of bird flu, raising the country s death toll from the H5N1 avian influenza virus to 91 - the world s highest, a Health Ministry official said yesterday. The man, identified by his initials MN, originally from Bengkalis district of Riau province in Sumatra island, died Tuesday just as he was admitted to Pekanbaru s Arifin Achmad Hospital, said Dasir Nurdin, an official at the Health Ministry s bird-flu information centre. The man, identified...

Haunted by the knowledge that influenza killed 50 million people in 1918, scientists and public health officials continue to seek ways to head off the next great pandemic. Others are looking for the best way to construct a vaccine, or antiviral drugs, to prime our immune systems to grapple with the more dangerous virus that may evolve from the avian flu. And it's never been done for any influenza virus, despite the substantial death tolls from the annual flu - a complacency that has begun...

Wrapped up in it, however, are some far trickier questions: Is it ethical to charge for saltwater that increasingly pumps up supermarket chickens? Is the sodium lactate used as a flavoring and preservative in sliced roast beef "natural?" How about the high-fructose corn syrup that sweetens sodas? Wrapped up in it, however, are some far trickier questions: Is it ethical to charge for saltwater that increasingly pumps up supermarket chickens? Is the sodium lactate used as a flavoring and...