Effective Preventive Drug Against Bird Flu Developed In The Mouse (Medical News Today) Researchers have developed what could be used as an effective preventive drug against bird flu. In a study published in the open access journal Respiratory Research (http://respiratory-research.com/), researchers have created antibodies against the avian flu virus H5N1 that work in mice both as a preventive drug, or prophylaxis, when administered before infection, and as a treatment for bird flu. [News Source]

More tests confirm low-risk bird flu in Illinois (Reuters via Yahoo! News) A second round of tests on ducks in central Illinois confirmed the birds have a low-pathogenic form of avian influenza, the U.S. government said Tuesday. [News Source]

Governments Still Dither on Bird Flu, Study Finds (Fox 6 News San Diego) A third of countries trying to plan for a possible bird flu pandemic have not made any decision on who would be first in line for scarce vaccinations ... [News Source]

Bird Flu Kills Third Indonesian in a Week, WHO Says (Update2) (Bloomberg.com) Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu killed a 27-year-old woman on Indonesia's Java island, the third person to die of the virus there in less than a week, the World Health Organization said. [News Source]

Bird flu: Who’s next? Bangladesh!The Role of Public Administration (News From Bangladesh) In comparison to malaria and diarroeal diseases, which together kill over 3 million people every year, bird flu has killed very few people. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the H5N1 virus may mutate into a new human flu virus against, which humans have no immunity. [News Source]

Governments still dither on bird flu, study finds (Reuters via Yahoo! News) A third of countries trying to plan for a possible bird flu pandemic have not made any decision on who would be first in line for scarce vaccinations and antiviral drugs, U.S. and Israeli researchers said on Tuesday. [News Source]

Bird flu vaccine for kids, elderly. Scores of children and seniors will be immunised against deadly bird flu after an Australian-made test vaccine proved safe on adults. [News Source]

Indonesian bird flu toll hits 55. The death toll from bird flu in Indonesia has now reached 55, after officials confirmed that a 27-year-old woman had succumbed to the disease. [News Source]

Bird flu not a worry yet, says Abbott. Australia stands ready to deal with an outbreak of bird flu - but it doesn't have too much to worry about at the moment. [News Source]

Australia to test bird flu response. Australia will today begin testing whether it is prepared to cope with a potentially deadly outbreak of bird flu. [News Source]

Indonesian woman dies of bird flu. A 27-year-old woman was killed by bird flu - Indonesia's third death from the virus in as many days - bringing the nation's toll to 55. [News Source]

Farmers feed chickens dangerous drugs. Farmers are feeding their chicken flocks dangerous drugs to ward off bird flu. [News Source]