Students to learn about avian flu (The Jakarta Post) TANGERANG: The Tangerang Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Agency has announced plans to educate school students on the avian influenza virus. "The program aims to enable students to detect the symptoms of the disease as early as possible," said agency head Didi Aswadi on Friday. [News Source]

Gaps in bird flu plan leave US vulnerable-senators (Reuters via Yahoo! News) The U.S. Agriculture Department's failure to develop a "comprehensive" program to monitor for bird flu could leave the country unprepared if an outbreak happens, a bipartisan group of senators said on Friday. [News Source]

EU agency backs first avian flu vaccines for birds (Reuters via Yahoo! News) European regulators have given a green light to the first two avian influenza vaccines for use in birds, the European Medicines Agency said on Friday. [News Source]

Nigeria: El-Rufai Compensates Bird Flu Victims (AllAfrica.com) MINISTER of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai Tuesday ordered for the compensation of Poultry farmers whose Birds were slaughtered at the height of the Avian Influenza (also called Bird Flu) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). [News Source]

Aerial spraying weighed for Yolo. Yolo County could see aerial pesticide spraying in urban areas within weeks to control the West Nile virus, vector control officials say. [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]

Local leaders hamper bird-flu culling (The Jakarta Post) JAKARTA (Bloomberg): Bird flu control in Indonesia is being hampered by some local government leaders who are deliberately ignoring orders to cull infected fowl, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said. [News Source]