Avian flu might not be next pandemic (Lexington Herald-Leader) And now the good news: Avian influenza might not be the next pandemic to kill millions around the world. The H5N1 virus that causes bird flu has had ample opportunity to mutate into a faster-moving strain, but has not done so -- and that is reason for hope, said Frank Edens, an immunologist and physiologist who spoke yesterday to a Lexington audience. [News Source]

Bird flu reaches Chinese girl, others prepare culls (Reuters via Yahoo! News) China announced the spread of H5N1 avian flu to an eight-year-old girl on Thursday, its second human case this month coming a day after a top WHO official warned the world not to tire of fighting the virus. [News Source]

Asbestos stunner halts bldg. cleanup. Cleanup of the toxic Deutsche Bank tower near Ground Zero has been halted after asbestos was found in areas the state said had already been cleaned. [News Source]

The landscape of a pandemic. Isolating sick people, rapidly treating family members with antiviral drugs, and closing schools and businesses will sharply reduce new infections in a future flu pandemic, according to a new mathematical model described in the British scientific journal Nature. [News Source]

Smuggled poultry blamed for spreading bird flu. Vietnam estimates about 4,500 chickens are trafficked into the country every day from China in a trade that is nearly impossible to police because of scarce resources. [News Source]

U.S. efforts won’t slow pandemic, model shows. If pandemic influenza hits in the next year or so, the few weapons the United States has to keep it from spreading will do little, a new computer model shows. [News Source]

Britain to cull chickens as bird flu strain found. Britain is to start culling 35,000 birds on a poultry farm in the east of the country on Thursday after a strain of bird flu was detected in chickens. [News Source]

Flu pandemic would peak in UK within four months. Within two months of the first pandemic flu case anywhere in the world, it would arrive in the UK. It would peak here two months later with countless thousands likely to have died, but the worst would be over within four months. [News Source]

35,000 chickens slaughtered after Norfolk bird flu outbreak. Workers were slaughtering 35,000 chickens on a Norfolk poultry farm today after some tested positive for bird flu. [News Source]

Forum debates rights in a pandemic. Here's how a worldwide flu epidemic might start: A sales manager for a multinational corporation returns to his California office from a business trip to Vietnam, feeling sick. [News Source]

U.N. says bird flu spreading. Bird flu has hit 45 countries, killed more than 100 people and seems to be spreading quickly, the U.N. official in charge of tracking the virus said Wednesday. [News Source]

Norfolk bird flu: More tests as chickens culled. Tests are being carried out today to establish the exact strain of the virus but preliminary test results show that it was likely to be the H7 strain rather than H5N1. [News Source]