Free Republic

PARIS, Oct. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- A mysterious disease hit waterfowl in west Iran, leaving thousands of dead birds, the cause is still unknown, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said here on Thursday. "A high mortality has been observed among wild waterfowl in Poldasht (in West Azerbaijan province)" said the Paris-based organization on its website. It noted that there was no pathological agent identified nor particular lesion appeared at the autopsy and that weakness and death are only signs of this affection. The OIE said a total of 3,673 wild waterfowl had died since thephenomenon was found on Oct....

ANOI (Reuters) - A 73-year-old Vietnamese has died from bird flu, taking the country's toll to 39, 19 of them since the virus returned in December, state-run media reported on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT The Hanoi resident, one of four patients infected by the H5N1 virus under treatment in hospital, died on Tuesday after being admitted on June 23, the Lao Dong newspaper quoted hospital officials as saying. It gave no further details of the patient and doctors at the hospital could not be reached immediately for comment. The Health Ministry said bird flu had infected 60 people since it returned to...