Indonesia's Wet Markets must be Cleaned up to Fight Bird Flu: Expert
Todayonline.com
08 Aug 2006
Cleaning up Indonesia's popular wet markets and shifting live birds to separate sanitary locations is a crucial first step in the nation's fight against the deadly bird flu virus, an expert has said. Indonesia became the nation worst affected by the H5N1 virus this week, with 44 confirmed human deaths, putting its efforts to combat bird flu under the international spotlight.
Marthen Malole, a renegade virologist who revealed in 2004 that Jakarta had tried to cover up the existence of H5N1 for months, said the markets, where the vast majority of Indonesians shop for meat, needed to be tackled as a priority."Culling is wrong," he said, referring to Indonesia's limited efforts to slaughter chickens in affected areas.
"In Hong Kong they cleaned markets and got results -- they don't have any more cases," he told AFP, adding that most fatal cases in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, had contracted the virus at markets.
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Mississippi in Running for New Federal Lab: Plum Island had Studied Animal Ills
The Associated Press (Posted by Sunherald.com)
10 Aug 2006
Plum Island, a government lab off New York's Long Island where dangerous animal diseases have been studied since the 1950s, will not be rebuilt, according to a list of possible replacement sites released Wednesday by the government.
The Department of Homeland Security said 18 locations, some in Mississippi, are now under consideration for a new $450 million, 400-employee replacement of Plum Island. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Timothy Bishop, both Democrats, have lobbied to keep Plum Island open.
Mississippi submitted three sites for consideration for the new lab. They are in Madison County near Flora, in Hinds County near Byram and in Rankin County near Brandon. A spokesman for Gov. Haley Barbour said all three sites are still in the running. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said he'll continue working with Barbour and with other members of the state's congressional delegation to try to get the lab in Mississippi.
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Dead Ducks Ruffle Feathers in Swansboro
Newsobserver.com
10 Aug 2006
Jerry Allegood
Ducks have died in the small coastal town in the past three weeks. Something is killing the ducks of Swansboro, free-roaming flocks that have waddled the waterfront as long as many residents can remember. By some accounts, at least three dozen Authorities are baffled, despite an investigation and laboratory tests.
The Muscovy ducks, a breed characterized by a red crest above the beaks of adults, are considered by many to be part of the charm of the Onslow County town, 130 miles east of Raleigh. It was common to see big mama and papa ducks traipsing across the street with fuzzy ducklings behind them.
Many duck fanciers were worried, and some blamed the town, which has reduced the duck population in the past. But officials said they had nothing to do with the die-off and requested a state investigation. "The town has not been involved with any action to destroy ducks," Town Manager Larry Faison said Monday.
International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance [Meeting Announcement]
International Society for Infectious Diseases (Posted by isid.org)
10 August 2006
IMED 2007 • Vienna, Austria • February 23–25,2007
Emerging infectious diseases are at the center of the world’s attention. The threats of pandemic influenza and bioterrorism, and the realization, born of the SARS outbreak, that new infectious diseases may be recognized at any time, in any place, have dramatically raised our awareness. What are the most important emerging disease threats? How can we quickly detect their occurrences in order to respond in a timely and appropriate way?
ProMED-mail, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases, is pleased to invite you to the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance 2007. Along with our co-sponsors, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the European Commission, and the WHO Regional Office for Europe, we are developing a conference that will bring together the public health community, scientists, health care workers and other leaders in the field of emerging infectious diseases.
The meeting will embrace the ‘One Medicine’ concept recognizing that, just as diseases reach across national boundaries, so do they transcend species barriers. We therefore welcome the full participation of both the human and animal health communities.
>>>FULL ANNOUNCEMENT
Bird-flu Monitoring to Include Trapping
Honoluluadvertiser.com
10 Aug 2006
Dan Nakaso
State and federal officials will begin trapping 31 species of migratory, sea and water birds throughout Hawai'i this month as part of an expanded federal program launched yesterday to monitor a deadly strain of the avian flu across the entire country and in U.S. territories in the Pacific.
Officials in Hawai'i will use mist nets to trap 50 to 200 birds of all of the species, then take blood samples before releasing them, said Paul Conry, forestry and wildlife administrator for the state Department of Land and Natural Resource's division of forestry and wildlife.
State officials have received a $100,000 federal grant for the expanded program and will work with representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture across the main Hawaiian Islands and possibly in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Conry said. The deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Asia.
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