Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish laboratory has confirmed the country's first case of H5N1 bird flu after analyzing a sample taken from a wild migratory water bird, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday.
The dead great crested grebe was found in the northern province of Alava and a sample sent to the National Reference Laboratory on Thursday revealed "high pathogen" H5N1, the ministry said.
The government has forbidden transport of poultry or bird hunting within a 3 km (1.8 mile) protection zone round the place where the grebe was found and is monitoring within a 10 km radius, the ministry said.
"We have reinforced monitoring of the countryside in order to detect any deaths among wild birds as soon as possible," the ministry said, adding that it would hold a news conference at 4.30 p.m. (1430 GMT)
With cases in Italy and other European countries, experts had said it was only a matter of time before Spain also confirmed it had found an infected bird.
The country has already enforced rules to cover poultry being bred close to many wetlands areas, to prevent contact between migrating birds and domestic fowl.
The Madrid region has ordered all poultry farms to enclose their birds, whether close to wetlands or not, and others may follow suit. But many smallholders in villages also keep chickens unregistered in their backyards.
The European Commission said it had been informed of the test result.
"We have been notified by the Spanish authorities of a confirmed case of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu in a wild bird in the Basque Country," said Philip Tod, the Commission's spokesman on health and consumer protection.
"The Spanish authorities are applying the measures required by EU legislation as agreed by member states and the Commission."
"In the protection zone, poultry movements are restricted and poultry must be confined indoors," Tod said.
Hedging Against A Bird Flu Pandemic
Kenneth Reid, Spear's Security Industry Analyst 06.16.06, 1:20 PM ET
SANTA FE, N.M. - In May, the eyes of the world focused on a small village in Indonesia where the most publicized family cluster of the lethal H5N1 avian flu infection occurred, causing seven deaths. Despite multiple opportunities for the virus to spread to other family members, health care workers or into the general community, it has not apparently done so.
Profit from homeland security spending. Click here for the three best buys in biometric identification in Spear's Security Industry Analyst.
Based on an assessment of present evidence, the World Health Organization has concluded that the current level of global pandemic alert (Phase 3) is appropriate. This phase describes a situation in which occasional human infections with a novel influenza virus are occurring, but there is no evidence that the virus is spreading in an efficient and sustained manner from one person to another.
We are encouraged by these results and the professionalism with which the World Health Organization is handling the situation. That said, the moment the WHO shifts the alert level to Phase 4, expect a literal overnight collapse of the Asian markets similar to the currency crisis of 1997. That crisis started in July 1997 in Thailand, but it caused a global financial domino effect. That is what we are looking at with a Phase 4 warning. Keep yourself informed by monitoring updates at the WHO Web site.
Special Offer: U.S. border security is undergoing a massive overhaul, and a handful of companies will be major beneficiaries for years to come. Find out who they are in this month's issue of Spear's Security Industry Analyst.
Should such a scenario develop, the vast majority of stocks would decline, which is why we have suggested a December put option on the Standard & Poor's 500 index as a hedge. Buying puts, or selling covered calls, is a simple way to protect equity assets with a defined risk. Leveraged bear funds, such as those from Rydex and Profunds, are also an option. These funds rise in value as the major indexes fall. With respect to hedges, it is better to get in early.
If a Phase 4 warning were to be issued, the direct avian flu plays should do well immediately. These include Novavax (nasdaq: NVAX - news - people ), BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (nasdaq: BCRX - news - people ) and Crucell (nasdaq: CRXL - news - people ), along with influenza diagnostic companies Meridian Bioscience (nasdaq: VIVO - news - people ) and Cepheid (nasdaq: CPHD - news - people ).
Most other stocks are likely to plummet due to media shock. After the initial selling wave has passed, however, bargain hunters will arrive, and we expect there will be a group of companies that quickly rebound once investors realize that their businesses will thrive in a national bio-emergency, assuming the companies can maintain manpower services. That is a big assumption, but it is worth sketching out a shopping list.
In the health care field, one such favored company is Stericycle (nasdaq: SRCL - news - people ), a provider of medical waste management and infection control supplies. Another is Lincare Holdings (nasdaq: LNCR - news - people ), which offers home health supplies such as oxygen. A third is Quest Diagnostics (nyse: DGX - news - people ), a general medical lab.
Special Offer: Prepare your portfolio for a bear market with just five investments. Click here to peek at the defensive playbook from Jim Stack and InvesTech Research.
Branching out to more general business categories, video conferencing outfits like Polycom (nasdaq: PLCM - news - people ) are likely to rally. Ebay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) and other shopping services should do well. Emergency communications outfits like Comtech (nasdaq: CMTL - news - people ) and Relm Wireless (amex: RWC - news - people ) are likely to thrive.
Supplemental automated remote security providers such as Verint Systems (nasdaq: VRNT - news - people ), Nice Systems (nasdaq: NICE - news - people ) and possibly Magal Security (nasdaq: MAGS - news - people ) should see business increase.
Distributed power companies such as Metretek (amex: MEK - news - people ) and Distributed Energy Systems (nasdaq: DESC - news - people ) will be in high demand, and even select solar providers might do well.
We would also watch companies with very high revenue-per-employee figures, such as Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), and companies with high book value, such as resource companies. Natural gas provider Encana (nyse: ECA - news - people ) is a leader in both categories.
What are the chances of a pandemic? How lethal might the mutated strain be? How easily passed? How effective would the current anti-virals be? We honestly don't know, but we assume that government and WHO health officials will always downplay the seriousness of the situation to avoid sparking pandemonium on top of pandemic.
We therefore believe it is prudent for individuals to acquire anti-viral medication at this time. Given supply shortages and the long lead times for manufacturing, it will probably not be available during a pandemic in the 2006 to 2007 time frame.
ROME (AFP) - Bird flu experts from more than 100 countries admitted they have "a long way to go" to understand the possibly critical role of wild birds in spreading the disease, following a two-day conference at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Among the main conclusions of the meeting was the need for greater cooperation between countries in order to pool information, the FAO's chief veterinary officer Joseph Domenech told a news conference.
"There is a need for more cooperation to be able to assemble all the pieces of information that we already have, like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle," said Domenech.
"We still have a long way to go to fully understand the disease," he said.
The main problem, he said, is that no one knows for sure whether wild birds can act as long-term reservoirs for the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) viruses such as H5N1.
Migratory birds are known to carry the virus long distances, and in early spring, large-scale outbreaks of H5N1 were feared across Africa due to migrating bird flocks.
However scientists hit a wall when bird flu outbreaks were much fewer than expected but, worryingly, found nothing to link the outbreaks with wild birds.
"Before saying there is no role for wild birds in Africa we should be careful, however. We have to wait a little bit," said Domenech, particularly given that evidence of sick or dead birds can quickly disappear.
"A dead bird doesn't stay on the ground for very long in countries where there are hyenas and vultures ready to eat them up."
Juan Lubroth of FAO told journalists that the past six months had brought progress in some areas and increased concern in others.
"We do think that the HPAI crisis around the world is not going to go away in six months, we need to keep our guard up for many years to come," he said.
"We are more concerned in certain parts of the world, but do feel we have made strong advances in detecting the disease and protecting poultry and food in others," Lubroth said.
But he said the conference had shown that "systems and structures in many parts of the world need to be strengthened and updated."
Christianne Bruschke, coordinator of the bird flu task force at the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), highlighted concerns that "some countries" may be under-reporting bird flu outbreaks.
"We think that there might be underreporting but I think most countries do not do this deliberately. Not enough countries have laboratory facilities.
"Obviously reporting in many countries could be improved," said Gideon Bruckner, the OIE's top scientist.
The experts were unable to quantify the economic cost of bird flu, saying there was a need for ongoing assessment.
"More than 200 million chickens have died or been culled, causing huge losses to exporting countries like Thailand and China," said Domenech.
"There have been big losses because of falling consumption in Europe. In Italy at the height of the crisis in February and March the decrease in consumption was 50 percent, in France 20 percent. It's a huge, huge economic impact."
Bird Flu Explodes in Indonesia
By MARGIE MASON , 05.31.2006, 02:15 PM
Indonesia averaged one human bird flu death every 2 1/2 days in May, putting it on pace to soon surpass Vietnam as the world's hardest-hit country.
The latest death, announced Wednesday, was a 15-year-old boy whose preliminary tests were positive for the H5N1 virus. It comes as international health officials express growing frustration that they must fight Indonesia's bureaucracy as well as the disease.
"We're tying to fix this leak in the roof, and there's a storm," World Health Organization spokesman Dick Thompson said. "The storm is that the virus is in animals almost everywhere and the lack of effective attention that's being addressed to the problem."
Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands with a population of 220 million people, has a patchwork of local, regional and national bureaucracies that often send mixed messages. The impression, health officials said, is often that no one is truly at the helm.
"I don't think anyone can understand it unless you come here and see it for yourself," said Steven Bjorge, a WHO epidemiologist in Jakarta. "The amount of decentralization here is breathtaking."
He said Health Ministry officials often meet with outside experts to formulate plans to fight bird flu, but they are rarely implemented.
"Their power only extends to the walls of their office," Bjorge said, adding that the advice must reach nearly 450 districts, where local officials then decide whether to take action.
Indonesia has undergone a sometimes rocky transition to democracy since dictator Suharto was ousted in 1998, with many powers held by the central government being transferred to regional and community control.
But the process has been haphazard, and funding and policy decisions are often at the whim of inexperienced officials, mayors and village heads.
National government officials concede there is a problem.
"The local government has the money, thus the power to decide what to prioritize," said Hariyadi Wibisono, director of communicable disease control at the Ministry of Health. "If some district sees bird flu as not important, then we have a problem."
Indonesia has logged at least 36 human deaths in the past year - 25 since January - and is expected to soon eclipse Vietnam's 42 fatalities. The two countries make up the bulk of the world's 127 total deaths since the virus began spreading in Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.
Attention has been fixed on one village on Sumatra island where six of seven relatives died of bird flu. An eighth family member was buried before samples were collected, but the WHO considers her part of the cluster.
Experts have not been able to make a direct link between the relatives and infected birds, which has led them to suspect limited human-to-human transmission. But no one outside the family of blood relatives - no spouses - has fallen ill and experts say the virus has not mutated.
Scientists believe human-to-human transmission has occurred in a few other smaller family clusters, all involving blood relatives. Experts theorize that may mean some people have a genetic susceptibility to the disease.
On Wednesday, WHO said 54 uninfected relatives and contacts of the Indonesian family cluster are under quarantine and are taking the antiviral drug Tamiflu and being monitored by health workers. The quarantine is voluntary and the teams are also visiting all the homes in the 400-household village in North Sumatra to look for signs of illness. It said there are no signs the disease has spread since May 22.
Bird flu remains hard for people to catch, and most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds. Experts fear the virus will mutate into a highly contagious form that passes easily among people, possible sparking a pandemic.
Experts say the best way to battle bird flu in Indonesia is to tackle it in poultry. But that message is not always getting through. Many local governments have refused to carry out mass poultry slaughters in infected areas, and vaccination has been sporadic at best.
Such measures helped other hard-hit countries like Vietnam and Thailand curb outbreaks. Both have strong central governments that have taken a leading role in the effort.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has been working with officials to improve poultry surveillance in Indonesia and quicken response times to outbreaks.
But public awareness and bio-security standards remain low in the densely populated countryside, home to hundreds of millions of backyard chickens.
"It's not quite so easy here, where you have to have the local authorities and provincial authorities and national all on board," said Jeff Mariner, an animal health expert from Tufts University working with the FAO in Jakarta.
"We find outbreaks every week scattered throughout Java. It's a diffusely endemic disease. In most districts, you can find it at any time," he said. "It's a staggering undertaking in a decentralized country."
Associated Press writers Zakki Hakim in Jakarta and Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva contributed to this report.
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/05/31/ap2784294.html
GENEVA - An Indonesian family infected with bird flu may have passed the disease among themselves rather than individually catching it from poultry, but the World Health Organization is leaving its pandemic alert level unchanged, the agency said Wednesday.
Six of seven people in the extended family in northern Sumatra who caught the disease have died, the most recent on Monday. An eighth person who died was buried before tests could be conducted, but she was considered to be among those infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
WHO is investigating whether the strain was spread among family members, although it said Wednesday there was no evidence the virus had mutated to a form that will spread more easily between humans, possibly sparking a pandemic.
"We haven't seen evidence from Indonesia that the disease is passing easily from human to human," WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng told The Associated Press.
The agency's alert level remained at 3, where it has been for months. That means there is "no or very limited human-to-human transmission."
Cheng said it was unlikely the agency would raise the alert level in the immediate future.
"All confirmed cases in the cluster can be directly linked to close and prolonged exposure to a patient during a phase of severe illness," a WHO statement said. "Although human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out, the search for a possible alternative source of exposure is continuing."
She said WHO had considered convening a meeting of experts to debate whether to raise the alert level, but had decided that the current situation did not merit that step.
"We had discussed that," she said. "But that is not going to happen."
The agency has suspected that in rare cases bird flu may have passed from one person to another, but it usually has been caught by people from chickens and other poultry.
WHO said that testing indicated there had been no significant mutations in the virus. Experts have feared that a mutation of the virus into a strain that could easily pass among humans could set off a deadly flu pandemic.
According to the WHO, 218 people have been confirmed to have been infected with bird flu since 2003, and 124 of them have died.
The agency said the Indonesian Health Ministry had confirmed a man who died May 22 had been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
He was the seventh member of an extended family confirmed to have become infected. An eighth person in the family, who died of similar symptoms May 4, was buried before tissue samples could be taken, so the cause of death could not be determined, but she is assumed to be part of the cluster, WHO said.
The family lives in the Kubu Sembelang village, Karo District, of North Sumatra.
"The newly confirmed case is a brother of the initial case," WHO said. "Specimens were taken on 21 May and flown the same day to Jakarta. Tests run overnight confirmed his infection. His 10-year-old son died of H5N1 infection on 13 May. The father was closely involved in caring for his son, and this contact is considered a possible source of infection."
It said the investigation is continuing, but that preliminary findings indicate that three of the confirmed cases spent the night of April 29 in a small room with the first woman infected and that she was coughing frequently.
That group included the woman's two sons and a second brother, who is the sole surviving case among infected members of this family, WHO said. Other infected family members lived in adjacent homes.
So far health workers have found no sign that the case has moved outside the family and there is also "no evidence that efficient human-to-human transmission has occurred."
Laboratory testing has completed full genetic sequencing of two viruses isolated from cases in this cluster. That has found "no evidence of genetic reassortment with human or pig influenza viruses and no evidence of significant mutations," WHO said.
Such a change could have been dangerous, because it might combine the bird flu virus with a strain that would make it easily pass among humans.
Bird Flu Fears Drive Vaccine Stocks
Wednesday May 24, 10:25 am ET
By Wallace Witkowski, AP Business Writer
Fears of Possible Human Transmission of Bird Flu in Indonesia Drive Niche Biotech Shares
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks in companies with bird flu drugs in development rallied Wednesday on fears that the World Health Organization may have discovered cases of human-to-human transmission of the deadly virus in Indonesia.
ADVERTISEMENT
One of the leaders was Malvern, Pa.-based Novavax Inc., which announced in April that it brought one of its plants up to code to make bird flu vaccines, based on recently issued Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
Novavax shares rose 62 cents, or 13.3 percent, to $5.30 in morning trading on the Nasdaq.
Also up were shares of Hemispherx Biopharma Inc., which rose 23 cents, or 8.6 percent, to $2.91 on the American Stock Exchange. AVI Biopharma Inc. shares climbed 26 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $4.88 on the Nasdaq. Shares of Generex Biotechnology Corp. were up 29 cents, or 15.8 percent, to $2.13 on the Nasdaq. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares jumped $1.64, or 13.9 percent, to $13.44 on the Nasdaq.
Carrington Laboratories Inc., which recently received a patent for expanding a flu vaccine during an outbreak, saw its shares rise 26 cents, or 6.6 percent, to $4.20 on the Nasdaq.
Also, shares of Gilead Sciences Inc., which receives royalties from Swiss drug maker Roche Holding AG for the flu treatment Tamiflu, climbed $2.62, or 4.9 percent, to $56.39 on the Nasdaq.
Late Monday, the WHO announced another case of a man who died of the H5N1 avian flu strain in Indonesia, the sixth person to die out of seven infected with the virus in an extended family. In many of the cases, relatives who fell ill had been caring for very sick family members.
While the WHO said that human-to-human transmission of the virus cannot be ruled out, it is searching for other explanations for how the virus could have been transmitted. The organization stressed that it has found no evidence of a spread of bird flu among humans or that the virus is easily transmitted from person to person.
To date, the WHO has uncovered a total of 218 cases of the virus in humans resulting in 124 deaths. People have contracted the virus after being exposed to infected poultry. The recent incidents in Indonesia are the first sign of a possible outbreak involving people who may be getting the virus from exposure to other infected people, suggesting that the virus may be mutating.
Indonesia has one of the highest bird flu mortality rates in people with a total of 33 deaths resulting out of 42 confirmed cases.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Federal scientists have started testing migratory birds for signs of a dangerous bird flu that could show up on this continent this spring.
The testing of shorebirds began Wednesday on an Anchorage coastal wildlife refuge, said Bruce Woods, spokesman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
It's the first sampling of a summer-long project to swab birds for bird flu throughout the state. Nationwide, the goal is to sample 75,000 to 100,000 wild birds. In Alaska, about $4 million in federal money will be allocated to study about 15,000 birds, Woods said.
"We had some success in catching some of the target species," Woods said Thursday.
More than 40 species of waterfowl and shorebirds are considered susceptible to infection by a highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus that's killed more than 100 people, in other parts of the world, mostly in Asia.
Scientists will only test birds in the Anchorage area through early next week. "In this location, it's very brief, birds go through and their gone," he said.
To screen the birds for the deadly virus, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Alaska's Fish and Game Department also are setting up more than 50 remote backcountry camps accessible mainly by float planes or boats.
Many birds will be tested and released, while others killed during seasonal hunts will be tested after they have died.
Alaska is an ideal bird flu laboratory because it's at the crossroads of migratory pathways for birds flying between the United States and other countries. Some of these birds arrive in Alaska each year from Asia.
WASHINGTON - The federal government on Thursday awarded more than $1 billion to five drug manufacturers to develop technology for speedier mass production of vaccines in the event of a pandemic.
The funding comes from the $3.8 billion that Congress approved last year. The federal government says its goal is to be able to distribute a vaccine to every American within six months of a pandemic. Currently, flu vaccines are produced in specialized chicken eggs, but that technique does not allow for speedy mass vaccinations.
"We have the opportunity to be the first generation that prepares for pandemic," said Mike Leavitt, secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, before signing the contracts
The companies receiving the contracts were: GlaxoSmithKline, $274.8 million; MedImmune, $169.5 million; Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, $220.5 million; DynPort, $41 million; and Solvay Pharmaceutical, 298.6 billion.
JOHANNS RELEASES NATIONAL ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
USDA's General Standards for Database Integration Also Available
WASHINGTON, April 6. 2006-Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today announced the release of an implementation plan that outlines timelines and benchmarks for the establishment of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), along with a plan for the initial integration of private and state animal tracking databases with NAIS.
"Developing an effective animal identification system has been a high priority for USDA and we've made significant strides toward achieving a comprehensive U.S. system," said Johanns. "We recognize that this represents one of the largest systematic changes ever faced by the livestock industry and we have welcomed suggestions from stakeholders to ensure that we continue to gain momentum. The plan we are releasing today will guide our efforts as we continue to work with our State and industry partners to implement a nationwide system."
The implementation plan continues to set an aggressive timeline for ensuring full implementation of the NAIS by 2009. It establishes benchmarks for incrementally accomplishing the remaining implementation goals to enable the NAIS to be operational by 2007, and to achieve full producer participation by 2009. Several important components have already been accomplished. These include the development of premises registration systems in each State and the issuance of guidelines for the manufacture and distribution of animal identification numbers. More than 235,000 premises are currently registered.
USDA is also releasing today the general technical standards for animal tracking databases that will enable integration of private systems with the NAIS. Private database owners are invited to submit applications for system evaluation to USDA and offer feedback as the final technical requirements are established. USDA will then enter into cooperative agreements with owners of databases that meet the standards. The application for system evaluation and a draft cooperative agreement are available on the NAIS web site at www.usda.gov/nais.
By early 2007, USDA expects to have the technology in place, called the Animal Trace Processing System or commonly known as the metadata system, that will allow state and federal animal health officials to query the NAIS and private databases during a disease investigation. The animal tracking databases will record and store animal movement tracking information for livestock that state and federal animal health officials will query for animals of interest in a disease investigation.
Training sessions will be offered to organizations interested in distributing animal identification number (AIN) tags as either a tag manager or tag reseller. Two USDA-sponsored web conferences about the administration of AIN tags and a demonstration of the AIN Management System are scheduled for Thursday, April 13 at 1 p.m., and Wednesday, April 26 at 1 p.m., Eastern Time. Details of the web conferences are available on the NAIS web site.
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is also finalizing $3 million in funds that will be awarded to a number of States and Tribes to conduct field trials to analyze information pertaining to animal identification. Field trials will focus on the evaluation of new technologies for animal identification and automated data collection. APHIS will also fund an economic study focusing on the cost of NAIS implementation within a state; the development of procedures to measure the performance of identification devices and a bi-state study to develop recommendations regarding livestock exhibitions to achieve compatibility with the NAIS.
APHIS has awarded approximately $27 million in funds to States and Tribes to advance the national animal identification initiative. This funding has been used primarily for premises identification and registration. APHIS is updating a summary report detailing what has been accomplished through previously funded field trials and pilot projects. This report will be made public upon completion.
Throughout the establishment and implementation of the NAIS, USDA has engaged in extensive dialogue with producers and industry organizations across the country to gauge their views on animal identification. In April, 2005, USDA published a draft strategic plan and draft program standards for the NAIS and invited public comments on those documents. Industry-specific working groups have also been studying the issue of animal identification and will be making recommendations to USDA through an established advisory committee on how best to tailor the program to meet their industry-specific needs.
Additionally, USDA hosted a public meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, in November, 2005, to receive comments from cooperators and stakeholders on the animal movement tracking component of the NAIS. In total, these efforts have ensured that momentum continues to build around this important effort. USDA believes that it is critically important to develop the appropriate framework for the system to ensure successful implementation and wide-scale support.
The NAIS implementation plan, along with more information about the program, is available at www.usda.gov/nais.
Last Modified: 04/06/2006
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Authorities have discovered a mild form of avian influenza at a live bird market in New Jersey, but it is not the deadly H5N1 strain governments around the world are trying to contain, the state's agriculture department said.
"The strain was found in a live bird market in Camden County. None of the birds in the market died from this virus, which is an indicator that the virus was low pathogenic and not harmful to humans," said a statement by New Jersey's Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus which was posted on Friday.
Details were not immediately available on precisely when the avian flu in Camden County was discovered.
The H5N1 strain of avian influenza not only kills chickens quickly, but can now infect people, and governments around the world are scrambling to contain its spread. Scientists fear that if the virus acquires the ability to pass easily from person to person, it could cause a pandemic that would kill millions.
The H5N1 avian flu strain has already infected 205 people and killed 113 since 2003. Its spread has forced several countries to ban poultry imports from nations where the disease has spread.
The H5N1 virus has spread from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Kuperus said preliminary tests from the National Veterinary Services laboratory were negative for type N1 of the virus. More tests are pending at laboratories of the U.S. Agriculture Department in Ames, Iowa, to confirm the strain of the virus, he added.
"The market owner voluntarily depopulated his existing flock, and the market has undergone cleaning and disinfecting under New Jersey Department of Agriculture supervision," said Kuperus.
The market in Camden County will be inspected again by New Jersey's Division of Animal Health before being allowed to reopen.
Avian Flu News Tracker
April 17, 2006 3:38 a.m.
Updated regularly with news on avian-flu precautions, research and outbreaks. All times EST.
Monday, April 17
California has nowhere near the capacity to treat the hundreds of thousands of people who might need medical care should a pandemic flu strike, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing health officials and experts across the state. Officials are only beginning to work out how they would find the extra hospital beds, health workers and equipment needed in such a crisis. "No one, and I repeat no one, is prepared for a pandemic that starts tomorrow," Dr. Howard Backer, an official with the California Department of Health Services, tells the paper.
Sunday, April 16
3:30 p.m.: President Bush is expected to approve soon a national pandemic influenza response plan that identifies more than 300 specific tasks for federal agencies, including determining which frontline workers should be the first vaccinated and expanding Internet capacity to handle what would probably be a flood of people working from their home computers, the Washington Post reports. The document is the first attempt to spell out in some detail how the government would detect and respond to an outbreak. Bush is expected to approve the plan within the week, but it continues to evolve, several administration officials who have been working on it tell the paper.
6:30 a.m.: Palestinian health workers contained an outbreak of bird flu in the Gaza Strip after culling more than 360,000 birds exposed to the illness, Gaza Governor Mohammed al-Kidwa said. The flu was detected in Gaza near the border with Israel on March 22 and later spread to five farming locations. U.N. officials have warned that the virus will deal a severe blow to Gaza's already shaky economy.
Poultry smuggling undermines bird flu precautions
Posted on 14 April 2006
Last month, two vans of police inspectors, undercover in jeans and sneakers, pulled up at a storefront near the Piazza Morselli in Milan on a sensitive raid, a matter of national well-being and security. Their target was not terrorists, weapons or drugs. It was smuggled Asian poultry - a product at risk for carrying bird flu.
While sorting through a refrigerator at the back of the Chinese grocery store, the inspectors found their quarry: bags of unlabeled refrigerated duck feet that General Emilio Borghini, head of the Military Police Health Service, deemed "suspicious."
A similar raid at a warehouse here a few months ago yielded three million packages of chicken meat smuggled from China in unmarked packages, even though such imports have been banned in the European Union since 2002.
There is increasing evidence, experts say, that a thriving international trade in smuggled poultry products - including birds, chicks, eggs, meat, feathers and other products - is making a substantial contribution to the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus.
Poultry smuggling turned out to be a huge and previously largely overlooked business, perhaps second only to narcotics in international contraband, experts and government officials believe.
GSK looks like nearing a possible trade/entry point...JMHO
Bird flu 'could take 142m lives'
Worst case economic cost is $4.4 trillion
Thursday, February 16, 2006; Posted: 10:28 a.m. EST (15:28 GMT)
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- As many as 142 million people around the world could die if bird flu turns into a "worst case" influenza pandemic, according to a sobering new study of its possible consequences.
And global economic losses could run to $4.4 trillion -- the equivalent of wiping out the Japanese economy's annual output.
The study, prepared for the Sydney, Australia-based Lowy Institute think tank, says there are "enormous uncertainties" about whether a flu pandemic might happen, and where and when it might happen first.
But it says even a mild pandemic could kill 1.4 million people and cost $330 billion.
In its "ultra" or worst-case scenario, Hong Kong's economy is halved, the large-scale collapse of Asian economic activity causes global trade flows to dry up, and money flows out to safe havens in North America and Europe. Deaths could top 28 million in China and 24 million in India.
The report's release in Sydney Thursday comes as two more countries in Europe -- Germany and Austria -- report that the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected in wild fowl (Full story).
The Lowy Institute's report, titled Global Macroeconomic Consequences of Pandemic Influenza, looks at four possible scenarios:
Mild, in which the pandemic is similar to the 1968-69 Hong Kong flu;
Moderate, similar to the 1957 Asian flu;
Severe, similar to the 1918-19 Spanish flu (which infected an estimated 1 billion people and claimed as many as 50 million lives);
An "ultra" scenario that is worse than the Spanish flu outbreak.
Although the 1918-19 flu outbreak probably originated in Asia, it was known as the Spanish flu because the Spanish media were the first to report on its impact.
Since bird flu first appeared in China's Guangdong province -- which adjoins Hong Kong -- in 1996, the disease has claimed more than 90 human lives -- almost all in Asia, with the most recent deaths in Turkey.
In addition, about 200 million birds around the world have died or been culled.
Outside of Asia, there have been bird flu outbreaks in Greece, Italy, Turkey, Croatia, Russia, Azerbaijan and Romania in Europe, Iraq and Iran in the Middle East and in Nigeria, Africa. (Full story)
This spread of the disease from Asia to the fringes of Europe in recent weeks has prompted massive global attention on possible prevention measures, with the U.S., the EU and countries such as China and Japan committing hefty financial and human resources to combating the disease.
But the new Lowy Institute report, by the Australian National University's Prof. Warwick McKibbin and research fellow Dr Alexandra Sidorenko, says the major difficulty with influenza vaccine development is "the need to hit the constantly moving target as the virus mutates very rapidly."
Their observation follows a scientific study released last week which said bird flu was much more diverse than previously thought, with at least four distinct types of the deadly H5N1 virus (Full story).
In that study, a group of 29 scientists around the globe found that the virus was both more genetically diverse and able to survive in birds showing no signs of illness.
One of the researchers, Dr. Malik Peiris, professor of microbiology at Hong Kong University, told CNN on February 8 that regional virus types meant there was a need to look for "broad cross-protection" rather than a single vaccine.
Peiris said that while wild birds may contribute to the introduction and spread of bird flu, the perpetuation of the disease was through stocks of domestic poultry. He said no country was fully prepared to combat the disease, which needed to be tracked back and tackled at its source.
Further mutation
So far, all but a handful of cases of human sickness have been caused by direct contact with sick birds, suggesting the virus is unable to move easily among humans.
But health officials have warned that with continued exposure to people, the virus could mutate further and develop that ability.
While scientists scramble to prepare an effective medical response, the Lowy Institute report primarily looks at the macroeconomic impact of a flu pandemic.
It said there would be four main sets of "shocks" for each scenario: shocks to the labor force (through deaths and dislocation to production); additional supply shocks through increased costs; demand shocks; and risk premium shocks, involving financial flows.
In the worst scenario, it said the death toll could reach 28.4 million in China, 24 million in India, 11.4 million in Indonesia, 4.1 million in the Philippines, 2.1 million in Japan, 2.0 million in the United States and 5.6 million in Europe. In the world's least developed countries, the toll could top 33 million.
The study's figure of 142 million possible deaths is similar to an earlier estimate of 150 million deaths by World Health Organization senior official David Nabarro, when he was named as head of the United Nations avian flu response team in September last year.
The Lowy Institute study found that East Asian economies would be proportionately more affected than the United States or Europe. In the "ultra" or worst-case scenario, Hong Kong's economy, for example, would shrink by more than 53 percent.
"This is clearly a major economic catastrophe," the report's authors note.
"The large scale collapse of Asia causes global trade flows to dry up and capital to flow to safe havens in North America and Europe."
Japan would experience a larger shock than other industrialized economies, but a smaller shock than the rest of East Asia. However, its integration with the collapsing East Asian economies means it would take a further shock through declining trade flows.
The authors say a "key part of the story" is the monetary policy response.
"Those countries that tend to focus on preventing exchange rate changes are coincidentally the countries that experience the largest epidemiological shocks," they say.
"This is particularly true of Hong Kong, which receives the largest shocks and has the most rigid exchange rate regime."
The report concludes that a "large investment of resources" should be dedicated to preventing an outbreak of pandemic influenza.
The Lowy Institute report is authored by Prof. Warwick McKibbin, professorial fellow at the institute and Professor of Economics at the Australian National University (ANU); and Dr Alexandra Sidorenko, a research fellow at the ANU's National Center for Epidemiology and Population Health, and adjunct research fellow at the ANU's Australian Center for Economic Research on Health.
CNN's Geoff Hiscock in Sydney contributed to this report
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/02/15/birdflu.cost/index.html
Just on CNBC..Bird flu now in UK...
i did some after our morning walk.
me again, west. i got behind some due to some family problems.
i have some good gains in FMNJ. maybe time to switch.
these three look awesome.
any favorite between the three?
SVMI, NNLX, SPZI.
SAY OPIDA IS DOING WELL FOR US. one great gent to know.
I am now heavy in SVMI also. Picked up 2.2 million shares and if they have what they claim, it could be worth a fortune very soon...HARD TO BELIEVE THOUGH. Also look at NNLX, hydrogen from controlled biological consumption of waste with no energy expended. The Welch plant opens soon. Last look at SPZI.....2 cents with huge potential to penetrate commodities software business.
hi westeffer, i'm doing some reviews. BLDH is a mover. CTUM and most of all you mention.
AURC is up big again today.
hi nanopatent, good afternoon. what ya up to this weekend?
hi CB, i updated our ibox with some information from BOREALIS.
BIRD FLU article from BOREALIS, what is bird flu?
#msg-10346365 ... #msg-10352109 ... #msg-10472494
APRIL 1,2006 FROM BOREALIS...#msg-10472450 information and some links.
hi gateway stocks, this is from BOREALIS AT THE PARENT PALACE.
#msg-10472450
BEIJING, March 29 -- Shanghai must enhance prevention-measures against Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu, to guarantee public security and residents' health, Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said at yesterday's regular government work conference.
On the evening of March 24, the Ministry of Health confirmed that a 29-year-old woman in Shanghai had died from bird flu.
The city's Party Committee and Municipal government are paying great attention to this and taking prompt measures to enhance prevention against the epidemic disease, Mayor Han said.
The local health department has required hospitals and medical institutes to operate a daily reporting system and all the districts and counties to establish special emergency-response systems.
if you haven't noticed the bird flu isn't going away too soon.
a lot of bird flu bio companies are increasing their pps for aver one year. especailly strong this first qtr.
hi CB, good afternoon. this is from borealis. the article is at BBCMF.
#msg-10346365
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's agriculture ministry denied rumors in U.S. commodities markets on Thursday that a case of H5N1 bird flu had been found near the U.S. border.
"We are free of highly pathogenic bird flu," Jose Angel del Valle, the ministry's animal health director, told Reuters.
U.S. grain prices were lower early on Thursday amid talk of the deadly bird flu in neighboring Mexico, but livestock markets -- which stand to benefit -- were treating it as a hoax, traders said.
The rumors apparently began on a Brazilian Web site, which reported that a duck found dead in the town of Nogales, near Arizona, had died of bird flu.
The Western Hemisphere so far has had no confirmed cases of the deadly version of bird flu, which has killed more than 100 people in seven countries: Turkey, Iraq, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Cambodia.
Mexican authorities killed some 300 birds after detecting low pathogenic bird flu on homesteads in the southern state of Chiapas last December.
Del Valle said the agriculture ministry had a strict system of monitoring chicken farms and that other government bodies were closely watching wild bird populations for any sign of the virus.
TO ALL, BBCMF,FRIENDS AND READERS. ONE OF FRIENDS HAS PASSED ON. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY SOMETHING FOR HER OR ABOUT HER GIVE THIS PALACE A CLOCK TO.
IN MEMORY FOR MARIE az2820
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=2463
WASHINGTON - The nation's schools, recognized incubators of respiratory diseases among children, are being told to plan for the possibility of an outbreak of bird flu.
Federal health leaders say it is not alarmist or premature for schools to make preparations, such as finding ways to teach kids even if they've all been sent home.
School boards and superintendents have gotten used to emergency planning for student violence, terrorism or severe weather. Pandemic preparation, though, is a new one.
They have a lot to think over, top government officials said Tuesday.
Who coordinates decisions on closing schools or quarantining kids? If classes shut down for weeks, how will a district keep kids from falling behind? Who will keep the payroll running, or ease the fear of parents, or provide food to children who count on school meals?
"Those are the kinds of issues that I don't think people have spent a lot of time talking about yet," said Stephen Bounds, director of legal and policy services for the Maryland Association of School Boards.
"But if New Orleans and Katrina taught us nothing else, it taught us you need to be thinking about things ahead of time — and preparing for the worst," Bounds said.
The urgency is about bird flu, the name for the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu.
It remains primarily a contagious bird disease. Typically spread from direct contact with contaminated birds, it has infected more than 170 people and killed roughly 100. None of those cases occurred in the United States, but officials say bird flu is likely to arrive this year in birds.
As outbreaks have hit Africa, Asia and Europe, officials have launched campaigns to educate the public. To help stop the spread of the disease, farmers have killed tens of millions of chickens and turkeys.
Experts fear the virus could change into a form that passes easily among people.
In North Carolina on Tuesday, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings joined Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to encourage schools to prepare. Spellings said schools must be aware that they may have to close their buildings — or that their schools may need to be used as makeshift hospitals, quarantine sites or vaccination centers.
The government has created checklists on preparation and response steps, specialized for preschools, grade schools, high schools and colleges. The dominant theme is the need for coordination among local, state and federal officials.
Some of the advice is common sense, like urging students to wash their hands and cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze to keep infection from spreading. Other steps would take schools considerable time to figure out, such as legal and communication issues.
"I don't think that the issue of bird flu has resonated yet," said Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, which represents many of the country's teachers.
Weaver praised the federal government for providing guidance that can be plugged into a school district's crisis plan. But the sudden urgency on bird flu, he said, should not steal attention from the daily struggles schools face, like trying to keep their classrooms safe.
Children age 5 to 18 tend to be the biggest spreaders of flu viruses in the community, experts say. Schools may be ordered to close to prevent spreading the disease.
In Massachusetts, school administrators are considering using an automated phone bank to announce homework assignments and update parents. Another plan would use the Internet for communication between students and their teachers.
But those plans are limited, and many places have had budget cuts in technology, said Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. "I don't think we're anywhere near having a systemic way of approaching this," he said.
Any school closing may not be for only a day or two. A shutdown would probably have to last a month or longer to be effective, said flu specialist Ira Longini, a faculty member at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.
"The school itself plays a big role," said Longini. "It's just a massive mixing ground for respiratory illness."
At the college level, the American Council on Education, a higher education umbrella group, has alerted thousands of college presidents about the need to prepare for bird flu.
Federal health leaders have advised each college to establish a pandemic response team and plan for outbreak scenarios that could close or quarantine their campuses.
GENEVA (Reuters) - Bird flu has killed five young people in Azerbaijan, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, adding it was investigating whether some of the victims could have been infected collecting feathers from dead swans.
Confirmation of the five deaths takes the WHO toll from the virus to 103 since late 2003.
Egypt reported its fourth suspected human case over the past week. The Egyptian authorities have said that one of the patients died of bird flu last Friday, but that has not been confirmed by the WHO.
Pakistan on Tuesday became the latest country to confirm bird flu in poultry, saying the virus found in two poultry flocks late last month was the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain.
Bird flu has spread with alarming speed in recent weeks as it marches deeper into Africa, Europe and Asia. The United States says it is likely to arrive on its shores before the end of the year.
Fears are growing the H5N1 flu virus will mutate and pass easily from one person to another but for the moment it remains hard for people to catch it from infected birds.
"We don't see any human-to-human transmission (in Azerbaijan). The exact source of exposure to the deadly virus is under investigation, which is focusing on defeathering of birds," WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said.
Four of those who died came from a settlement of around 800 homes in the Salyan region in the southeast of the country, while the fifth victim came from Tarter in the west. Azerbaijan lies at the crossroads between Europe and Asia.
The WHO said an investigation in Salyan had found some evidence that carcasses of swans, dead for some weeks, may have been collected by residents as a source of feathers.
Adolescent women and young girls usually defeather birds in the affected community, the WHO said.
Four of the victims in Azerbaijan were women aged between 17 and 21, while the other was the 16-year-old brother one of the dead women.
EGYPT
Egypt reported a fourth suspected case of bird flu in humans on Tuesday, in a 17-year-old boy whose father had an outbreak of the disease on his chicken farm in the Nile Delta on Saturday and Sunday.
Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali, quoted by the state new agency MENA, said the boy was taken to hospital in the town of Tanta on Sunday and was being treated with Tamiflu, the drug used to fight bird flu in humans. His condition was "good and stable," he added.
The boy was the fourth Egyptian suspected of contracting the disease from infected birds. Of the first three, one has died, one has recovered and the third is receiving treatment.
The Palestinian Authority declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in the hope of preventing the spread of H5N1 which struck Israel last week. Israel has poisoned hundreds of thousands of turkeys and chickens in a bid to curb its outbreak.
PAKISTAN POULTRY
In Pakistan, Livestock Commissioner Muhammad Afzal said there had been no other cases of bird flu since the outbreak was first reported on February 27 at farms in the North West Frontier Province.
Samples from two farms were sent to a laboratory in Britain, and the flocks -- totaling around 23,000 birds -- were culled.
"I can only confirm that the H5N1 type of virus was found in chickens from both the farms," Agriculture Ministry official Mohammad Akhlaque told Reuters.
"We have conducted tests on the people who worked on both the farms and they are healthy. There is no sign of any bird flu in those people. We have already culled all chickens so there is not much more we can do," he told Reuters.
don't think we can go to much wrong in this sector right now Mick...
nice update CB. it is striking pretty fast all over. looks like it is coming here sooner than thought for us.
EMFP ????
hi GS, nice update for us. NNVC
#msg-10256804
NanoViricides, Inc. Achieves Broad Success in Initial FluCide-I(TM) Anti-Influenza Studies
Monday March 20, 7:30 am ET
Company Says That Nanoviricides(TM) is Now a Proven Platform To Attack Bird Flu
WEST HAVEN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 2006--NanoViricides, Inc. (Pink Sheets:NNVC - News), today announced it has received additional results from its FluCide-I(TM) efficacy studies performed at a major US research facility. On the basis of these data, Dr. Krishna Menon, the Company's Chief Regulatory Officer, said that the drug candidate tested was worthy of filing an Investigational New Drug Application (INDA) with the FDA. "The results were so positive that with an appropriate dosage protocol, it may be possible to save human lives even in bird flu cases using this test nanoviricide itself," suggested Dr. Menon.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to the company's President, Dr. Anil Diwan, "The study involved our nanomicelle to which a broad-spectrum, anti-influenza test ligand (virus targeting molecule) was attached. This combination of a micelle and ligand is called a nanoviricide(TM). While the objective of the study was to prove that the core technology worked, the results clearly exceeded our expectations. We feel that we have in development the world's best anti-influenza drug in our hands!"
In a Fast Protocol study, mice were infected with high levels of a human influenza virus. These levels resulted in an untreated survival period of only seven (7) days. A sub-group of these mice were treated with the test nanoviricide 24 hours after infection. The survival time of treated mice was increased significantly at relatively low and safe dosage levels. The safety of the dosage used was confirmed by gross histology as well as microscopic examination of a number of organs and tissues. These results suggest that the dosage can be increased several fold without significant adverse effects and that these higher dosage levels of our nanoviricide(TM) may already be capable of saving human lives in H5N1 bird flu cases.
"We can now say that the nanoviricide is a proven platform," stated Dr. Eugene Seymour, the company's CEO, "and believe that we can take any enveloped virus and attack it by attaching the right ligand (virus targeting molecule) to the nanomicelle. For instance, we can attack multiple subtypes of influenza by using a broad-spectrum ligand, as we have recently proven, or we can attack a specific virus subtype, such as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and H5N1, with precise ligands that are intended for greater efficacy and specificity." Dr. Seymour also stated that "although the possible extent of any future bird flu pandemic is not at all clear, emergency preparedness purchases by agencies worldwide have been in several billions of dollars. More importantly, the market for a true targeted anti-viral for human influenza is enormous considering the tens of millions of cases diagnosed just in the US and Western Europe alone. Tens of thousands of people die of human influenza year after year."
The truly unique aspect of the technology is that once a drug to attack one virus is created, developing a new drug for another virus involves only changing the targeting molecule, not necessarily the underlying nanomicelle. This novel feature enables us to either respond to a mutating virus or else go after a completely new virus in a relatively short period of time. The Company is currently developing drugs against avian flu (H5N1), emerging highly pathogenic avian influenza threats (HPAI such as H9N2), common influenza, and rabies. The Company plans to develop additional drugs against HIV and Hepatitis C in the near future. "Our goal is to file two INDAs with the FDA within the next 12-18 months," said Dr. Seymour.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bush administration officials said on Monday it was "increasingly likely" that bird flu would be detected in the United States as early as this year but added it would not mean the start of a human pandemic.
Speaking to reporters, Interior Secretary Gail Norton, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt unveiled a plan to increase monitoring of migratory birds that are likely to bring the bird flu virus to U.S. shores.
Norton said the early detection plan would prioritize sampling in Alaska and the Pacific islands, where scientists believe the strain of highly pathogenic H5N1 virus currently affecting Southeast Asia would most likely arrive.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has spread across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia and killed at least 98 people worldwide since 2003.
Norton said she anticipated initial, so-called "presumptive" H5N1 results could be announced some 20 to 100 times this year but those first tests would not tell whether the virus was high or low pathogen.
Discovery of bird flu in the United States will not be reason to panic, Johanns said, noting that positive test results could turn out to be a harmless version of the virus.
Should U.S. domestic poultry become infected, the Agriculture Department would "act quickly" to quarantine an affected area and destroy the infected flock, he said. Poultry farmers would be compensated for their loss, he added.
Although hard to catch, people can contract bird flu by coming into contact with infected birds. Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that could pass easily between humans, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.
i added these to our iboxe.
NetWorking with Moderator: FinancialAdvisor Assistants: FinancialAdvisorFinancialAdvisor's College Class(FACC)...#board-2767
NetWorking with Moderator: kgoodrich Assistants: cats, flota, Gok...Seasonals rock...#board-1616 & #board-3424 Seasonals rock.
NetWorking with: Moderator: puppman Assistants: Creede Bighorns, rrufff...The Transparent Flamingo 2...#board-5260
NetWorking with Moderator: SeriousMoney, Assistants: None...
Toby Smith Stock Review...#board-4469
Moderator Or An Assistant To These Forums In This Click...#msg-10253185
NetWorking with Moderator: Trade_4_Money,Assistants: IAMSAM, Pay_tience...PENNIES TO DOLLARS...#board-3802
hi CB, comment and article for us.
WASHINGTON - Don't count on a vaccine to protect against bird flu during the first six months of a pandemic. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Monday it would take at least that long to produce a vaccine because the virus is changing and there's no way to know which strain might become capable of human-to-human transmissions.
As a result, the government will have to maintain stockpiles of vaccine against each of the main H5N1 strains circulating the globe.
Once the particular strain is identified, it will take time to ensure that a vaccine is safe and to mass-produce it, he said.
"If we have a person-to-person, transmissible virus and we enter a pandemic condition, we will be operating without a vaccine for the first six months," Leavitt said. "We will be dependent upon traditional public health measures to contain and limit it."
Leavitt updated reporters Monday on what the federal government is doing to monitor and prepare for bird flu. A report he released noted that the virus has spread from 16 countries to about 37 in a span of about four months.
Leavitt said the federal government is operating under the assumption that an infected bird will be found in the United States by the fall. He stressed that people should not be overly concerned once a sick bird is found.
"As long as it is a bird disease, it is not a crisis," he said.
Scientists are concerned that the virus could mutate and become contagious among people. Currently, people have only been infected after close contact with sick birds. So far, 175 people have been infected and 96 of them have died.
HHS officials have held 23 bird flu summits throughout the country to emphasize the need for state and local communities to take the threat seriously, and to begin preparations for a pandemic.
Leavitt said his top bird flu concern was the ability of the government to get medicine quickly into the hands of people who need it.
"Doing anything millions of times is hard. Doing it fast makes it even more difficult," he said.
He also said he was worried about how the country would handle a surge in demand for health care.
"It will need to be the focus of individual community planning, because every community's surge will be handled differently," he said.
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar reported its first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, and there was a high risk poultry in Afghanistan were also infected, officials said Monday, a day after the virus gained new ground in Europe and Africa.
Lab tests confirmed the outbreak in northern Myanmar after 112 chickens died, said Laurence Gleeson, a senior official at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, citing a report from the Myanmar government.
The Cameroon government announced its first case on Sunday, becoming the fourth African country to be struck by the virus. The H5N1 bird flu strain was detected in a duck on a farm close to the northern town of Maroua, near the border with neighboring Nigeria, the government said in a statement broadcast on state radio.
New cases were also reported Sunday in Poland and Greece — two countries already touched by bird flu — in the latest signs of the disease's expanding range.
In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said that an H5 subtype of bird flu was found in poultry samples in Kabul and Jalalabad, and that there was a "high risk" further tests could prove the samples to be the H5N1 strain.
The deadly bird flu virus has not yet reached Afghanistan, but the FAO warned last month that it would and chided the government and donor nations for being slow to prevent it.
Dr. Azizullah Esmoni, of the Afghan Agriculture Ministry, said he expected further results within 48 hours to determine whether the H5N1 virus had struck the Afghan poultry.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter of tens of millions of chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003, and recently spread to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Health officials fear H5N1 could evolve into a virus that can be transmitted easily between people and become a global pandemic.
That has not happened yet, but at least 97 people have died from the disease worldwide, two-thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to figures by the World Health Organization.
There was no evidence of human infection in Myanmar, said Than Tun, director of the country's livestock breeding and veterinary department, a division of the Agriculture Ministry.
"We are taking all measures to control the situation," he told The Associated Press, pledging that authorities would deal with the outbreak in a "transparent manner."
Than Tun said the remaining chickens in the flock of nearly 800 were immediately slaughtered, and that experts were inspecting farms within a two-mile radius of the farm where the infected birds were found.
The cases were detected at four farms north of Mandalay, the country's second largest city, said Jum Conix, a WHO spokesman in Myanmar.
Myanmar's military government — which generally restricts the free flow of information and exercises tight control over the mostly state-owned mass media — had previously said it would deal openly with any outbreaks of bird flu.
Gleeson said that testing was carried out at laboratories in Mandalay and Yangon, the capital, where technicians had received training in how to detect bird flu from the Food and Agriculture Organization and other international agencies.
"We have every reason to expect there is sufficient competence (in Myanmar) to make the diagnosis," Gleeson said. "If the government says they've got it, then they've got it."
Samples have also been sent to a laboratory in Australia, according to Than Tun, but Gleeson said the FAO had not been informed of that.
The World Health Organization was waiting for confirmation from the Australian tests before officially declaring an outbreak in Myanmar, said Jum Conix.
Cameroon's Minister of Livestock Aboubakary Sarki told reporters the infected duck was among 10 birds that died in Maroua from Feb. 12-26. He said the government had already slaughtered birds in the area as a precaution, but did not say how many.
The fatal virus was first discovered in Africa on a commercial poultry farm in Nigeria in February. It has since been reported in Niger and Egypt.
Also Sunday, authorities in Poland announced confirmation of the country's fourth case of deadly avian flu.
Laboratory tests confirmed the H5N1 strain in a dead swan found in a town near the border with Germany, said Tadeusz Wijaszka, head of the laboratory in Pulawy, central Poland.
Two wild swans in Greece tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain, the Agriculture Ministry said Sunday, bringing to 32 the number of bird flu infections found in birds in Greece since the first case was confirmed Feb. 11.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Bird flu has killed its 22nd human victim in Indonesia, a 12-year-old girl, according to tests by the World Health Organisation's Hong Kong laboratory, an Indonesian health ministry official said on Friday.
The confirmation came just hours after Indonesia reported its 21st human bird flu victim, a three-year-old child, according to tests by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The official said the 12-year-old girl had had contact with poultry. The three-year-old boy who died earlier this month in Indonesia's Central Java province, had also been in contact with fowl, according to initial information.
Contact with infected birds is the most common means of transmission of the H5N1 virus to humans.
"We have confirmation from the Hong Kong lab that Hanif, a 12-year-old girl from Boyolali in Central Java, died of bird flu. We now have 30 cases, with 22 of them dead," said Hariadi Wibisono, director-general of control of animal-borne disease at the health ministry.
Bird flu has killed at least 98 people in East Asia and the Middle East since late 2003 and scientists fear the virus could mutate and spread easily from person to person, triggering a pandemic that could kill millions and cripple economies.
Of Indonesia's internationally confirmed fatalities from the H5N1 virus, 11 have been in 2006, making it the country with the most bird flu deaths so far this year.
H5N1 has killed birds in more than 30 countries in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Africa. It has spread to 14 new countries in the past month.
In Indonesia, the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu has affected birds in about two-thirds of the country's provinces.
Stamping out the virus is a huge, if not impossible, task in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of about 17,000 islands and 220 million people.
The government has resisted the mass culling of fowl seen in some other nations, citing the expense and the impracticality in a country where the keeping of a few chickens or ducks in backyards of homes is common in cities and on farms.
Agencies have concentrated instead on selective culling, and on public education and hygiene measures aimed at prevention.
A sweeping door-to-door campaign to try to control the disease in the capital Jakarta, the country's biggest city which along with its suburbs has about 12 million people, only got underway at the end of February.
Agriculture officials estimate that Jakarta alone has some 500,000 fowl.
I agree 100%... but I still don't like what I eat being pumped full of growth hormone's BHG? Not going to live forever but hate the govt lies
that is why I only eat taco bell...LOL
I love to eat chicken!
Im think that is pretty popular.
Mad cow, bird flu, pesticides - what can we eat? Pork? Lamb? Veggies?
Fish? Full of mercury.
Woe are we.
oh, great...I love to eat stone marten..
Don't eat raw birds!
Cook 'em VERY well.
BERLIN - The H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in a weasel-like mammal called a stone marten, a German laboratory said Thursday, indicating the disease has spread to another animal species.
The Friedrich-Loeffler Institute confirmed the presence of the virus in the marten, a carnivorous mammal with brown fur and a white throat patch. The animal was found sick and apparently dying on the island of Ruegen in northern Germany on March 2.
It was then killed by a government veterinarian, the institute said in a statement.
The deadly strain of bird flu was found in a cat on the same island last month, the first time the virus has been identified in an animal other than a bird in central Europe. Infected cats have since been found in Austria.
"The presence of an H5N1 infection in a second mammalian species is not surprising," Till Backhaus, the regional minister for agriculture, said in a statement. "Cats and martens have a comparable prey spectrum."
Cats are believed to have caught the virus by eating infected birds
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Bird flu, already spreading across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is expected to jump across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas within a year, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday.
"It is certainly within the next six to 12 months. And who knows, we've been wrong on other things, it could be earlier," said Dr. David Nabarro, coordinator of the U.N. drive to contain the pandemic in birds and prepare for its possible jump to humans.
He predicted the leap across the Atlantic Ocean would take place in two stages, carried in the next few months by wild birds flying from West Africa to the Arctic region, and then brought southward to North and South America six months later.
"I just think that every country in the world now needs to have its veterinary services on high alert for H5N1, to try to make sure that they don't get caught unawares and find that it gets into their poultry populations without knowing," Nabarro told a news conference at U.N. headquarters.
"And I will bet you that many countries in the Western Hemisphere are doing just that," he added.
The H5N1 bird flu virus has led to the deaths of millions of birds in more than 30 countries. It has spread to over a dozen new countries in the past month and infected 175 people since 2003, killing 96 of them.
Although it remains an avian disease, and rarely affects humans, health officials fear it will mutate into a form that can easily jump from human to human, triggering a pandemic in which millions of people might die.
For the immediate future, the spread of the disease among birds in Africa is the main focus of the U.N. team -- which includes the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health, Nabarro said.
The disease has been confirmed in Niger and Nigeria but there have been bird die-offs in other African nations and confirmation of its further spread is expected soon, he said.
To spur preparedness, representatives of more than 40 sub-Saharan African countries will be meeting in the Gabonese capital Libreville later this month, he said
AVI BioPharma (AVII:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) is a bird-flu play that rallied from $4 to $9 in January and started to move sideways. The developing pattern has the markings of a triangle, with support at $6.70 and resistance at $8.80. The best plan is to sit back and wait for the stock to rally out of this congestion pattern. This would set the stage for a fast move into double digits.
BRUSSELS, March 8, (Reuters) - A Belgian man who returned from China on March 5 has been admitted to hospital with the symptoms of bird flu, news agency Belga quoted the health minister as saying on Wednesday.
A Belgian official from the country's health agency told Belga it was a possible case of bird flu rather than a probable one.
Should hear the results this week on XLPIs E200 testing of Bird Flu product
PARENTS ARE FROM BBCMF ,,,#Board-3665
Bird Flu Pandemic Concerns International Scientist
CDC link on bird flu
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/
WHO
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/
keep track of bird flu news
http://www.biomedicalstocks.com/avianflu.asp
Glaxo Wellcome
Chinese New Year is being celebrated this week, and that means there will be more travel in Asia, more consumption of chickens and unfortunately more risk of becoming infected with the bird flu. In the scientific world, it's called H5N1, the current, avian flu virus, which emerged in Hong Kong in 1997 and has recently caused the medical community to fear it could very well be the next global pandemic.
disclaimer...
This message board is not affiliated with any company or organization.
No endorsement of or by any company or organization is implied by the posts on this board.
You are responsible for your own decisions - post wisely and research before investing.
See LoDi Message For Bird Flu Symptoms.
these have comments with them...#msg-8562377
below is link for i.p.o. dates.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/market/ipomain.asp
NetWorking With Moderator: Dave_007,Cash Cow...#board-2117
NetWorking With Moderator: Merci, Early Bird Special...#board-2761
NetWorking With Moderator: midastouch017, Israel Economics...#board-3606
NetWorking with Moderator: rrufff,{HLSRF)...#board-4796
NetWorking with Moderator: Rawnoc, flu...#board-3227
NetWorking with Moderator: lowman, Oil and Gas Main #board-4810...O&G play,#board-4484
NetWorking with Moderator: i_like_bb_stock, BB's Penny haven...#board-2199
NetWorking with Moderator: Capt_Nemo, MARKET SCAMS...#board-610
NetWorking with Moderator: stocks4john ,NFL - King of the Hill Pool...#board-2915
NEtWorking with Moderator: wantoberich, Assistants: ONEBGG, ALL Wantobe's Personal-Cartoon DSL FunPlace (FUN)...#msg-7104590, #msg-7194930, #msg-7209870, #board-3912
NetWorking with Moderator: timhyma, Sharing Knowledge in Smallcaps...#board-865
NetWorking with Moderator: Low Float Stock Pick, Low Float Stock Picks...#board-4911
NetWorking with Moderator: momentumspeculator, BOTTOM PLAYS...#board-4929
NetWorking with Moderator: FinancialAdvisor FinancialAdvisorFinancialAdvisor's College Class(FACC)...#board-2767
NetWorking with Moderator: kgoodrich, Seasonals rock...#board-1616 & #board-3424 Seasonals rock.
NetWorking with: Moderator: puppman Assistants: The Transparent Flamingo 2...#board-5260
NetWorking with Moderator: SeriousMoney, Toby Smith Stock Review...#board-4469
Moderator Or An Assistant To These Forums In This Click...#msg-10253185
NetWorking with Moderator: DSDstock, Trading For Sole Propriety...#board-5273
NetWorking with Moderator: Gateway_Stocks, Oil and Gas Pipeline...#board-5320
NetWorking with Moderator: midastouch017, Israel Economics main one is #msg-10690831 for all his activities.
NetWorking with Moderator: Ataglance2, Stock tips Under .05...#board-4759
4/07/06: Moderator: martinwitton, Assistants:Ataglance2...PlanetLink Communications, Inc. {PLKC)...#board-2243
4/11/06: Moderator: Incite101, Assistants:
#msg-10541509...parent message #msg-10541645...BOTTOM PLAYS...#board-4929
NetWorking with Moderator: mick, Assistants: Trade_4_Money Sure Trace (SSTY...#board-1783
NetWorking with Moderator: Trade_4_Money, NanoLogix, Inc. (NNLX)...#msg-10844671
NetWorking with Moderator: Trade_4_Money, Alternative Energy Stocks...#msg-10602559
NetWorking with Moderator: Trade_4_Money, Nanotech stocks (NANOTECH)...#board-5529 ,
See This For List Of Nano Co's. ,,,#msg-10614797
NetWorking with Moderator: Trade_4_Money,Assistants: mick, Rawnoc
OTC/Pink Oil and Gas stocks (OIL&GAS)...#board-5598
NetWorking with Moderator: Trade_4_Money, PENNIES TO DOLLARS...#board-3802
this is concern for all , market maker signal for shares.
100--I need shares
200-I need shares badly,but do not take it down
300-take the price down to get shares
400-trade it sideways based on supply and demand
500-gap one way or another,to the direction of the 500 trade.
ADDING THIS 4/22/06: In my experiences I Noticed When In Sub Penny Add a Zero!!
here are some photos from cbfromli.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cb_fromli/album?.dir=54da&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done
Hard Right Edge for learning skills.
http://www.hardrightedge.com
http://www.nytimes.com
http://www.forbes.com
http://insidercow.com
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/home.asp
Future With Technology
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/cnn.25/interactive/gallery.top25/content.1.html
From Peoria 2/26/06
http://www.fluwikie.com
http://www.promedmail.org - disease monitoring site...
new chart2 from goodrich and starboy,,,5 day--10 day--200 day EMA
[*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?chart=ssty,uu[e,a]dhclyiay[db][pb5!b10!b200!d20,2!f][vc5!c20][iut!lv8!lk9!ll5!lah5,15,10!lp5,5][j20444984,y]&r=3555[*/chart]...Red and Black Candles
new chart2 daily view for red green candles...
[*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=KSWJ&p=D&yr=0&mn=0&dy=13&i=p98186702723&r=3761[*/chart]
new chart2
[*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=MSEP&p=D&yr=0&mn=6&dy=0&i=p93396953027&a=78904797&r=445">[*/chart]{red and green 50/100/200 ema
new chart2...side by side charts 180 days / 90 days weekly readings.
svmi weekly...180/90 days
[*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=SVMI&p=W&yr=0&mn=6&dy=0&i=t12381236728&r=9873[*/chart][*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=SVMI&p=W&yr=0&mn=3&dy=0&i=t47132485517&r=3936[*/chart]
new chart2...
[*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=TMR&p=D&yr=0&mn=6&dy=0&id=p71244194731&r=3541[*/chart]
new chart2...Side By Side Charts: Daily For Two Co's.,,50/200 EMA
[*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=gshf&p=D&b=5&g=0&id=t74282574833&r=8741[*/chart][*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=IESV&p=D&b=5&g=0&id=t74282574833&r=8741[*/chart]
new chart2...50/200 day Trendline...
[*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=MSEV&p=D&yr=0&mn=6&dy=0&id=t24509453371&r=4[*/chart] **********
new chart2...50/200/10 day Trendline
[*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=FMNJ&p=D&yr=0&mn=6&dy=0&id=p83377853953[*/chart]
new chart2...5day/10day/50day ema
[*chart]stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=cmbv&p=D&yr=0&mn=6&dy=0&i=p05583445219&a=78504300&r=710[*/chart]
Spider/Centipede Look Chart: Fibs, % Levels...
http://charts3.barchart.com/procal.asp?sym=FMNJ
[*chart]charts3.barchart.com/custom/tc/LBWR.GIF[*/chart]
chart ... p and f #1[3-BOX REVERSAL
[*chart]stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SharpChartv05.ServletDriver?chart=slre,pltad[pa][da][f!3!!]&pnf=y[*/chart]
chart ... p and f #2[2 BOX REVERSAL]
[*chart]stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SharpChartv05.ServletDriver?chart=vrdm,pluadanrbo[pa][d][f1!2!0.01!!2!20]&pnf=y[*/chart]
PINKSHEET UPDATES...
If You Need a Chart From The Pinks , Just Change The Symbol For The New Chart.
http://charts.edgar-online.com/ext/charts.dll?2-6-8-0-0-53-03NA000000dis
[*chart]charts.edgar-online.com/ext/charts.dll?2-6-8-0-0-53-03NA000000SVMI[*/chart]
100 Most Asked For At Pinkies.
http://www.pinksheets.com/marketactivity/topquotes.jsp
http://www.pinksheets.com/index.jsp
A Wealth Of Information Here. Many Links. #msg-9341363
INTERESTING FACTS TO KNOW ... #msg-9674624
FROM J 5/05/06 ... A Lot Of Company Information.
http://www.iplease-nevada.com/write.asp?state=NV&category=628901
middle east news...
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E4D19123-9DD3-11D1-B44E-006097071264.htm
chart ... p and f
[*chart]stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SharpChartv05.ServletDriver?chart=slre,pltad[pa][da][f!3!!]&pnf=y[*/chart]
EMFP...#board-3001 NANO MASK COMPANY.
1/26/06
FROM lady1242..http://www.biomedicalstocks.com/avianflustocks.asp
FROM LADY1242..http://www.xcelplusasiapacific.com/
FROM westeffer For Virus, etc. 1/10/06 ... Recombinomics is committed to the study of recombination as the driver of rapid molecular evolution and the emergence of novel infectious agents.
http://www.recombinomics.com/
http://www.bloodhoundsearch.com/index.htm
BIRD FLU article from BOREALIS, what is bird flu?
#msg-10346365 ... #msg-10352109 ... #msg-10472494
APRIL 1,2006 FROM BOREALIS...#msg-10472450 information and some links.
The long awaited removal of the "Grandfather Clause" has today been officially posted in the Federal Register for removal.
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/E7-15708.htm
On October 15th, all 'Naked Short' positions in public companies must be covered.
Volume | |
Day Range: | |
Bid Price | |
Ask Price | |
Last Trade Time: |