What is bird flu? (Daily Telegraph) Avian influenza or 'bird flu' is a contagious disease of birds, caused by influenza A viruses that can cause a range of symptoms, from mild illness and low mortality to a highly contagious disease with a near 100% fatality rate. [News Source]

OSHA Unveils New Guidance For Protecting Employees Against Avian Flu (SafetyOnline) The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has unveiled new safety and health guidance that alerts employees and employers about the hazards of occupational exposure to avian influenza from infected birds, or "avian flu," and provides practical recommendations on ways to avoid infection [News Source]

Greece finds bird flu virus in wild duck (AFP via Yahoo! News) Greece said it found bird flu in a wild duck shot by a hunter, adding that more tests were underway to establish whether the virus was the strain that can kill humans. [News Source]

US to help ASEAN fight bird flu, AIDS (AFP via Yahoo! News) The United States vowed its support to help Southeast Asian nations fight AIDS and bird flu and improve the region's ability to cope with the aftermath of natural disasters. [News Source]

Bird flu finding a way to evolve? Researchers have identified two mutations in a surface protein of the bird flu virus that enable it to bind more easily to human cells. [News Source]

Publix sued over benzene in soda. A Crawfordville woman filed a class action lawsuit in Tallahassee against Publix Super Markets Inc. on Thursday, claiming two of the company's store-brand sodas contain unsafe levels of the carcinogen benzene. [News Source]

US to help ASEAN fight bird flu, AIDS (AFP via Yahoo! News) The United States vowed its support to help Southeast Asian nations fight AIDS and bird flu and improve the region's ability to cope with the aftermath of natural disasters. [News Source]

Data from tamiflu maker point to flu as culprit. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it received new data from Tamiflu manufacturer Roche Holding AG suggesting that psychiatric problems seen in some patients taking the drug are a result of the flu and not the drug itself. [News Source]

Was Edwina Currie right about salmonella in eggs, after all? Although the British egg industry insists its eggs are safe to eat, the Food Standards Agency has found high levels of salmonella in foreign eggs. [News Source]

Vietnam to unveil advanced plan to fight bird flu (Tiscali) HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam, the country hardest-hit by avian flu but free of the disease for six months, will present a model plan on containing the virus at an Asia-Pacific conference next week, international officials said on Friday. [News Source]

YOLO BYPASS / Checks of migratory birds show no avian flu in U.S. (San Francisco Chronicle) A multimillion dollar national effort to screen North American migratory birds for potentially deadly strains of avian influenza has so far come up empty -- and if the United States is lucky, things will stay that way. In California, thousands of... [News Source]

Iran successful in combating Avian Flu (IranMania.com) LONDON, November 17 (IranMania) - World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have confirmed Iran’s success in preventing bird flu in the country, ISNA quoted the head of State Veterinary Organization as saying. [News Source]