Asia faces long fight against bird flu: UN official (AFP via Yahoo! News) Significantly reducing the risk of deadly bird flu in Southeast Asia, the region hardest hit by the virus, could take up to a decade, the UN official heading the global fight against avian influenza said. [News Source]

Bird flu Q&A (Daily Telegraph) How serious is bird flu? Avian influenza is caused by viruses related to human influenza. Transmission to people in contact with poultry or other birds occurs rarely and only with some strains. But it can devastate the industry and be deadly for farmers. [News Source]

Assessing the risk. The balance between risk and uncertainty is not easy to judge in a situation where known dangers can be transformed by biological change. [News Source]

Hospitals unprepared for pandemic surge. Severe Pandemic Could Double Need for Beds, Quadruple Need for Intensive Care. [News Source]

Poultry stays in shopping baskets, straw poll finds. Some shoppers were avoiding poultry reared in Suffolk yesterday, but there were no signs of a consumer panic sparked by the bird flu outbreak. [News Source]

Poultry farmers face export ban as vets warn threat is here to stay. Britain faces the loss of £370 million in export trade in meat and live birds after the arrival of the avian flu virus in the poultry industry. [News Source]

Bird flu outbreak in Britain. British officials say they've contained the avian flu outbreak that hit a turkey farm there last week, but there are fears that confidence in Britain's poultry industry could be shaken. [News Source]

Britain struggles with bird flu outbreak (Moldova.org) Britain has reacted to its first reported case of bird flu in captive birds by destroying the farm turkeys and dispersing anti-viral drugs.The Sunday Times of London said after the H5N1 avian influenza virus was found in domestic animals in Britain's Suffolk County last week, area officials ordered the infected animals' deaths and begun offering anti-viral drugs at a nearby clinic.One of the ... [News Source]

WHO experts to visit Nigeria after first human avian flu victim confirmed (AFP via Yahoo! News) World Health Organisation experts are due in Nigeria this week following confirmation of the first human victim of H5N1 bird flu virus in the country, a senior public health official told AFP. [News Source]

Threat of consumer backlash brings back memories of foot-and-mouth. Poultry farmers were braced last night for a potentially devastating customer backlash that threatens to decimate the £3.4 billion industry. [News Source]

England poultry industry rocked by deadly flu. An outbreak of bird flu on a farm run by Europe's biggest turkey producer has killed 2500 birds, government officials said yesterday. [News Source]

Experts play down the risk to humans as emergency teams race to set up. In the sprawling village of Holton yesterday, there was widespread shock among villagers at finding themselves at the centre of a national drama, and growing confusion about the implications of the discovery there of a deadly strain of bird flu. [News Source]