Bird flu samples on way to US (China Daily) The latest shipment of bird flu virus samples from China is expected to reach the United States next week, senior health officials said in Beijing on Friday. [News Source]

H5N1 Bird Flu Virus Is Changing, FAO And OIE Recommend Increased Surveillance When Vaccinating (Medical News Today) According to a report in last week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the identification of a new H5N1 virus sublineage in poultry, this new virus sublineage, called Fujian virus, appears to have become the dominant strain of the H5N1 avian influenza circulating in parts of Asia. [click link for full article] [News Source]

China Denies New Strain Of Bird Flu Virus (Nasdaq) (RTTNews) - China has denied the existence and spread of a new strain of H5N1 bird flu called Fujian-like Virus as suggested in a paper by Rob Webster and Guan Yi published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S., according to Xinhua. [News Source]

Is China coming clean on bird flu? WHO officials renewed calls for China to share information on avian influenza after researchers reported that a new H5N1 strain is circulating in southern China. But China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies reports of the new strain and insists China is cooperating. [News Source]

Bird flu expert gets world’s top health job. The World Health Organisation's assembly on Thursday elected China's Margaret Chan of China as its new director-general. [News Source]

Several viruses cause bird flu (The Santa Rosa Press Democrat) Commonly called bird flu, avian influenza is caused by viruses that normally affect domestic poultry, such as chickens and turkeys, and migratory waterfowl. [News Source]

China rejects reports of new bird flu strain. China agreed on Friday to share long-sought bird flu virus samples with international health authorities, after rejecting the existence and spread of a new strain of H5N1 bird flu called "Fujian-like virus". [News Source]

Chinese Minister refutes reports on new H5N1 strain in S. China. China's Minister of Health Gao Qiang on Thursday refuted a report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences that a new strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has emerged in southern China. [News Source]

Manual eyed to help Japanese abroad in bird-flu pandemics. Japan plans to compile a manual by year's end to address a possible outbreak of a new bird flu-mutated human influenza, Foreign Ministry officials said Wednesday. [News Source]

Indonesia given a hand in bird flu fight. CSIRO Livestock Industries is involved in a two-year collaboration to help strengthen Indonesia's defences against the avian influenza virus. [News Source]

Chinese physician elected head of WHO. The WHO yesterday elected as its new leader a 59-year-old Chinese physician, Margaret Chan, who in the past 10 years played a key role in suppressing two disease outbreaks that had the potential to become global epidemics. [News Source]

China Disputes Claims of New Bird Flu Strain (Voice of America) China is disputing a report by U.S. and Hong Kong researchers last week that says a new vaccine-resistant strain of bird flu virus has appeared in southern China. [News Source]