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A US government laboratory mistakenly mixed a common flu strain with a dangerous and deadly type of bird flu and shipped it to another lab, authorities said Friday. The latest news followed admissions of mishandled anthrax and forgotten smallpox vials at separate US government labs, and raised new concerns about the safety of dangerous agents which could be used as bioterror weapons. No one was endangered by the mixed flu strain, said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden, who nevertheless said he was "astonished" that protocols could have been violated in that way. "Everything we have looked...

A video recently emerged showing several cows lying dead on roadsides in California’s Central Valley amid an avian influenza outbreak across the U.S., sparking biosafety concerns. The dead cows were close together with swarms of flies buzzing around them, video shows. Dr. Crystal Heath, a veterinary doctor with the Berkeley, California-based nonprofit Our Honor, took the video Oct. 8 and shared it on Twitter on Oct. 17. The dead livestock were in front of Mendonsa Farms and Land O’Lakes Borges Dairy, both in Tulare County, Heath said. There were no visible warning signs of potential biosafety risk that the exposed...

Nearly 1.8 million chickens will be killed after bird flu was detected at an egg-laying operation in Weld County, a major resurgence on a commercial farm of the disease that has already seen more than 6 million birds culled. Gov. Jared Polis verbally declared a disaster declaration for the facility over the long holiday weekend. The move activates the state’s emergency operations plan and makes additional resources available to respond to the outbreak. A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Agriculture declined to name the facility.

Syrian Gov't Daily Suggests Israel Created, Spread Avian Flu Virus On January 31, 2006, the Syrian government daily Al-Thawra published an article by columnist Abd Al-Rahman Ghunaym suggesting that Israel created the avian flu virus in order to damage "genes carried only by Arabs." The article further speculates that Israel may have planted the virus in East Asia in order to mislead the world, and that this is why the disease first appeared in that remote region. Another possibility given is that the virus was created to attack "the yellow race - especially in China and Vietnam" which are "rising...

Shares of vaccine stocks Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX), and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) rallied this week, appreciating 23.4%, 16.4%, and 9.3%, respectively, through Thursday trading, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. While these three stocks gained notoriety back in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears this week's detection of avian bird flu in a second U.S. citizen and the first-ever detection of avian flu in a human in Australia are spurring fears of an outbreak and thus a possible boon for companies that can quickly produce a bird flu vaccine. Bird flu detected in Michigan...

You might have assumed that a bioengineered virus, funded by the U.S. government, escaping from a CCP lab and triggering a years-long worldwide economic meltdown would be enough to cut off the gravy train to Chinese research institutions for gain-of-function research.But that would be entirely too reasonable of a remedial action.Instead, U.S. government agencies are still, in 2024, funneling cash to government-run Chinese labs for exactly the kind of tinkering that caused COVID-19 — and they’re lying about it, under oath, so far with no consequences.In March, in a congressional hearing, Congressman Ben Cline asked U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom...

Cows in California have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and are now in quarantine, according to the state's Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). California hosts a fifth of the nation's dairy cows, and it is the number one producer of milk, butter, and ice cream, and the number two producer of cheese and yogurt in the US. The current infections of HPAI among cattle in the US started in March, when a 'mysterious' illness broke out among dairy cows in Texas...These cows were the first in the world to officially test positive for the bird flu...

Row over 'tree man' virus samples By Felix Lowe and agencies Last Updated: 5:00pm GMT 26/11/2007 An Indonesian fisherman who developed tree-like growths on his hands and feet is at the centre of an international medical spat after his country's health minister criticised doctors trying to treat him. Indonesia's health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, lambasted the US doctor currently treating the 35-year-old man, who has the rare affliction caused by the Human Papilloma Virus. Indonesia's health minister Siti Fadilah Supari (second right) inspects Dede's tree-like growths Mrs Supari is angry that Dr Anthony Gaspari has taken blood and tissue samples...

Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins reportedly pressured a group of scientists to abandon a paper they were authoring on the origins of COVID-19 and the possibility that COVID-19 was “genetically manipulated” and could have leaked from the Wuhan Insitute of Virology (WIV). “Neither Drs. Fauci or Collins edited our Proximal Origins paper in any way. The major feedback we got from the Feb 1 teleconference was: 1. Don’t try to write a paper at all — it’s unnecessary or 2. If you do write it don’t mention a lab origin as that will just...

Ahighly contagious strain of bird flu has been detected in three grizzly bears in Montana, the first time the disease has been found in grizzlies. The three bears tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in fall 2022, and were found to be suffering from neurological issues, including disorientation and partial blindness, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) said in a January 17 statement... ...Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that as of January 11, over 57 million poultry across the U.S. were infected by HPAI, most of which have died or been culled, while nearly...

Researchers have found a deadly strain of the avian influenza virus that has been sweeping through harbor seals may be able to spread to humans. That's according to a study recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications. The study, led by investigators from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, details how an avian H3N8 virus strain that had killed more than 160 seals along the New England coast back in 2011 boasted specific characteristics that allowed it to be easily spread through respiratory droplets and made it a potential threat for human infection.

Flu scientists are hoping to vaccinate themselves against another outbreak of a crippling controversy. In a letter published this week by Nature and Science (see p. 612), 22 researchers make their case for launching potentially risky experiments with the H7N9 avian influenza virus, which emerged earlier this year in China and which some scientists fear could spark a deadly human pandemic. The scientists, who mostly work in U.S.-funded labs, also detail the safety and security precautions that they would take to prevent the possibly dangerous viruses they create from escaping from the lab—or falling into the hands of terrorists. In...

Enlarge ImageTrouble spots. In mice infected with the H5N1 virus, deposits of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein (arrows) in dopamine neurons may be a sign of neurodegeneration. Credit: H. Jang et al., PNAS Early Edition (2009) Decades after the 1918 influenza pandemic, epidemiologists noted an uptick in the number of people with diminished mobility and other neurological symptoms reminiscent of Parkinson's disease. But despite this and other hints, the idea that viruses can trigger neurodegenerative disease has remained controversial. Now researchers report new evidence for such a link: Mice infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus lose the same dopamine-releasing neurons that...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that it was prepared with rapid containment measures including antivirals if needed to combat the swine flu outbreaks in Mexico and the United States. The Geneva-based agency has been stockpiling doses of Roche Holding's Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, a pill that can both treat flu and prevent infection. The new virus, not previously detected in pigs or humans, has proved sensitive to the drug, the WHO said in a statement. The WHO and its regional office in Washington, D.C., are also sending experts to Mexico to help health...

The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. And an official of the World Health Organization’s European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria. “At this juncture we are confident in saying that public health and occupational risk is minimal at present,” medical officer Roberta Andraghetti said from Copenhagen, Denmark. “But what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility in Orth-Donau.” The...

JAKARTA (AFP) — The future of a major US Navy research laboratory in Indonesia is in doubt amid allegations, dismissed as "crazy" by US diplomats, of espionage and secret experiments. Negotiations between Washington and Jakarta over the renewal of the operating contract of US Naval Medical Research Unit-2, or Namru-2, have stalled over a range of issues including diplomatic immunity for its US staff. Established in Indonesia in 1970 and charged with researching infectious diseases of military importance, the facility employs 19 Americans and more than 100 Indonesians and is based in Indonesian health ministry grounds. Its operations have attracted...

JAKARTA, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Indonesian House of Representatives have moved to establish a special task force to investigate U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 (Namru-2), local press said Tuesday. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the second largest faction in the House, proposed the fact-finding team because of allegations the U.S. laboratory is engaging in espionage and the lack of apparent benefits to Indonesia from their research. "We propose the House form a task force to investigate the lab to reassure the public that it isn't spying on us and that it really benefits...

The first vaccine against avian flu won government approval yesterday, even as federal officials conceded its usefulness in a flu pandemic might be limited. The vaccine, made by Sanofi Pasteur, is directed against the H5N1 strain of influenza virus, which some public health experts say could possibly spark a deadly epidemic of flu in humans. The federal government has already stockpiled enough of the vaccine to treat 6.5 million people. But yesterday’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration means the vaccine is no longer considered experimental and therefore could be dispensed during a pandemic without requiring each recipient to...

EU to assemble bird flu, animal disease "swat" team 27 Feb 2007 16:42:49 GMT More BRUSSELS, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A "swat" team of experts to tackle bird flu and other animal diseases is being assembled to fight outbreaks within the European Union and other countries. "When there is a serious animal disease outbreak ... very quick reaction is essential and efficient expert support can be crucial in bringing the situation under control," the European Commission said in a statement on Tuesday. While the EU has often dispatched teams of veterinary experts to help deal with disease crises -- to...

HOLTON, England -- Britain scrambled to contain its first outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu in domestic poultry yesterday after the virus was found at a farm run by Europe's biggest turkey producer. About 2,500 turkeys have died since Thursday at the Bernard Matthews farm near Lowestoft in eastern England. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said all 159,000 turkeys on the farm would be culled. "We're in new territory," National Farmers' Union Poultry Board Chairman Charles Bourns said. "We've every confidence in DEFRA, but until we know how this disease arrived,...