Chachoengsao hit by avian flu scare (Bangkok Post) The mysterious deaths of birds in Chachoengsao's Bang Khla district and some provinces in the Northeast have triggered another avian influenza scare. Hundreds of birds, including poultry, have died from unknown causes in the eastern province of Chachoengsao over the past week. [News Source]

efoodSafety.Com Inc. Reports That the Bird Flu Has Spread From Human to Human (RedNova) Patricia Ross-Gruden, president and CEO of eFoodSafety.com Inc. (OTCBB: EFSF), announced today that eFoodSafety.com Inc. confirms reports that the bird flu virus has spread from human to human. [News Source]

Warnings delayed in meat threat. State officials on Wednesday began notifying county health officials about restaurants that may have received poultry contaminated with avian flu, about three weeks after first learning of the potential threat. [News Source]

China clamps down on flu talk. In a case eerily reminiscent of the George Orwell novel "1984," a Chinese farmer who reported outbreaks of avian influenza in his region has been imprisoned for three-and-a-half years. [News Source]

Family tragedy spotlights flu mutations. A strain of avian flu that spread through a family in Indonesia, killing seven of the eight people infected, was accumulating mutations as it spread from person to person, according to confidential sequence data seen by Nature. [News Source]

State to test avian flu and pandemic preparedness (WCAX 3) MONTPELIER, Vt. -- The state will test its plans to respond to avian flu and a flu pandemic. In a two-week exercise this month, the state will respond to the mock discovery of bird flu on a poultry farm in southern Vermont. The drill also will include the quarantine of students at two colleges. [News Source]

Bhopal’s High Security Animal Disease Lab. claims to develop anti-avian flu vaccine (Yahoo! India News) Bhopal, July 13 (ANI): Bhopal based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) has claimed to have devised an H5N1 vaccine to combat Avian Influenza (bird flu). [News Source]

Ames lab prepares for avian flu testing (Iowa Farmer) AMES (AP) -- The government’s elaborate network for diagnosing bird flu will eventually come down to a sprawling 640-acre campus in the Iowa countryside where strict security is the only hint of the crucial role scientists there could play. [News Source]

Bird Flu Touches Europe’s West Coast, Wild Bird Dead in Spain (Environment News Service) BRUSSELS, Belgium , July 12, 2006 (ENS) - Avian influenza is creeping slowly westward across Europe. Farther west than any country where bird flu has been identified before, Spain has just confirmed its first case of the deadly bird flu virus H5N1. [News Source]

Romania poultry sector hit hard by avian influenza (Food Production Daily) 13/07/2006 - The effects of avian influenza on Romania's poultry sector provides a high-profile case study for the rest of Europe on how the virus could affect both the supply of the meat and consumers' demand. [News Source]

Bird flu sleuths sent out (Detroit Free Press) State agriculture officials said Wednesday they aren't sure how much poultry allegedly smuggled into the United States from areas of China affected by the avian flu outbreak made its way into southeast Michigan's Chinese restaurants, Asian markets and residential kitchens. But they plan to find out. [News Source]

State to test avian flu and pandemic preparedness (WCAX 3) MONTPELIER, Vt. -- The state will test its plans to respond to avian flu and a flu pandemic. In a two-week exercise this month, the state will respond to the mock discovery of bird flu on a poultry farm in southern Vermont. The drill also will include the quarantine of students at two colleges. [News Source]