In pandemic study, health workers stay home. Nearly half of the public health workforce, the majority of them clerical and technical support staff, would stay home during a flu pandemic, results of a new survey suggest. [News Source]

Hong Kong stores accused in pesticide scare. Hong Kong supermarkets dumped vegetable stocks Tuesday amid a new food scare after pressure group Greenpeace accused grocery chains of selling produce tainted with dangerous levels of pesticides. [News Source]

Bird flu update: 18 April 2006 (SciDev.net) Below is a roundup of the key developments on the spread of the bird flu virus (H5N1) and the threat it poses to human health. Each title is a link to the full article. [News Source]

WSJ UPDATE: McDonald’s Prepares Against Bird-Flu (CattleNetwork.com) Amid predictions that bird flu will soon arrive in the U.S., McDonald's Corp. said all of the U.S. chickens it has used over the past 10 months have come from flocks screened for avian flu. [News Source]

Human Tests of Avian Flu Vaccine to Begin in U.S. (HealthCentral.com) THURSDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- The first U.S. trial of a vaccine against avian influenza , a potentially devastating viral infection, will begin early next month. [News Source]

First bird flu laboratory to be put into operation by late April (Moldova.org) The first laboratory responsible for testing birds for the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus will be put into operation at an official ceremony by late April, BASA has learned from Vitalie Chelaru, ad-interim director of the republican centre for veterinary diagnosis. The equipment installed at the republican centre for veterinary diagnosis was purchased from the European Union’s unreimbursable [News Source]