[EBH]

Daily Bird Flu News Updates:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/LatestNews/?AREA=LatestNews&Display=6187

Xinhuanet - 2nd August 2005
Experts warn of spread of bird flu in Russia
RUSSIA - Russian veterinary service officials on Monday issued a warning on further spread of the avian flu to more regions after the virus killed more than 2,000 domestic fowl in Novosibirsk and new infections were discovered in the neighboring Altai region.

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Recombinomics - 2nd August 2005
Unverified Reports of Bird Flu Villages Being Razed
A recent translation of a boxun report suggest that three villages were razed in response to unrest linked to a forced bird flu quarantine in Yushu in northwestern Qinghai in China. China has imposed news blackouts and arrested reporters in the past, so verifiable news from the area is difficult to obtain. News outside of China however, points toward a virulent strain of H5N1 linked to Qinghai Lake has killed ducks and geese in several areas of southern Siberia in Russia as well as the adjacent region in Kazakhstan.

[EBH]

‘Pig disease’ may be spreading between humans
http://www.thepigsite.com/LatestNews/Default.asp?AREA=LatestNews&Display=9816

CHINA - Vaccines to combat a deadly pig-borne disease were flown to south-western China on Sunday, where the spread of the rare illness has already killed 36 people and infected 198.

The unusually high numbers of people infected by the swine disease has led scientists to speculate that it may be being spread from human-to-human - or that another disease entirely is to blame.

Streptococcus suis type II, although relatively common in swine, spreads to humans extremely rarely, and the size and virulence of this current outbreak, in the province of Sichuan, has taken the World Health Organization by surprise.

The Chinese government responded on Sunday by airlifting the first batch of a vaccine for the infection – enough to treat 360,000 pigs – from the southern city of Guangzhou to the affected towns. The vaccine’s manufacturers say they will be producing enough vaccine to treat 10 million pigs in the coming days – but vaccines take three weeks to produce immunity in the pigs.

Source: newscientist.com

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