Razor-thin birds wash up on shore. Like last year, scientists say, this year's bird deaths appear related to changes in the marine food web that they still don't understand but that look as if they are related to unusual weather. [News Source]

Dominica braces for bird flu. A Dominican health official warned Sunday that there was a serious risk of bird flu reaching the Caribbean by next year, and said the government was finalizing plans to combat the virus. [News Source]

Making a ferret sneeze for hints to the transmission of bird flu. Researchers at the disease centers and in other labs are studying the transmission and virulence of bird flu in ferrets and mice, trying to answer questions that take on more urgency as the virus advances. [News Source]

At the U.N.: This virus has an expert ‘quite scared’. Dr. David Nabarro, chief avian flu coordinator for the United Nations, has become gun-shy about making predictions about the A(H5N1) virus. [News Source]

With every epidemic, health officials face tough choices. For health officials, few decisions can be as crucial as deciding if and when to sound early warnings when they believe that an epidemic is possible but do not know whether it will become a real catastrophe. [News Source]

From the chickens’ perspective, the sky really is falling. The A(H5N1) influenza strain circulating the globe now may never seriously threaten humans, but for another subset of the earth's living creatures, it is already a disaster. [News Source]

A pandemic is worrisome but ‘unlikely’. Having observed A(H5N1) for many years in Asia, Dr. Jeremy Farrar thinks it is unlikely that the virus is poised to jump species, becoming readily transmissible to humans or among them. [News Source]

County awaits bird flu. Yakima County, Washington health and emergency response workers are preparing for the potential arrival of avian influenza at the same pace as the rest of the state. And it's a slow one. [News Source]

Why can’t they figure out the flu? The CDC, as an institution, is populated by a hybrid of public-health policy-makers and applied scientists. But lately this rarefied clique is causing concern. [News Source]

Mad cow shows sharp drop. In good news on the health front, a United Nations agency has reported an annual 50 per cent drop worldwide over the past three years in cases of Bovine Spongiform Encepalopathy, or mad cow disease. [News Source]

Health experts stress need for preparation, not panic. Despite the uncertainty, hospitals, schools, and businesses must be prepared to deal with a flu pandemic. [News Source]

Oregon bird flu plan is rocky. A serious flu pandemic could force Oregon physicians to make life-and-death decisions about who would get scarce mechanical breathing machines that are essential in treating severe influenza and the pneumonia that often accompanies it. [News Source]