Avian flu spreads, West Bengal to cull 2.55 million birds (New Kerala) Kolkata, Jan 31 : With the avian flu spreading to new areas in West Bengal, the government announced Thursday that it would end up culling a whopping 2.8 million poultry birds by Saturday. [News Source]

NATO begins pandemic monitoring. NATO recently became the latest agency, and the first military one, to sign up for the Global Public Health Intelligence Network, an international initiative that monitors media and other open-source material 24/7 for signs of emerging pandemics and other public health disasters. [News Source]

Bird flu outbreak almost ‘under control’. An outbreak of bird flu in poultry in India's West Bengal state is "coming under control", but authorities still need to break the chain of transmission of the H5N1 virus, the United Nations influenza coordinator said in an interview on Wednesday. [News Source]

Indonesia: epicenter of bird flu. All around Indonesia, since late 2003, chickens have been dying of bird flu. And more than in any other country, people are dying as well, infected either by chickens or from other sources. [News Source]

Hong Kong closes aviaries after concerns rise about avian flu (International Herald Tribune) Further tests were being carried out on a bird found dead in Ocean Park to see if it was infected by the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu, the virus that killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997. [News Source]

Bird flu ruled out (The Star) PUTRAJAYA : The dreaded bird flu, also known as the avian flu, has been ruled out as the cause of illness among students and teachers at SM Agama Simpang Lima in Sungai Besar, Selangor. [News Source]

Indonesian man dies of bird flu. A 32-year-old man died of bird flu in Indonesia's capital, lifting the toll in the country hardest hit by the virus to 101. [News Source]

Worrying times for Indian egg producers. After the outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal in eastern India many people have modified their eating habits. [News Source]

Bird flu cull hit by ‘corruption’. Several culling teams have stopped working in districts of West Bengal hit by bird flu, complaining of corruption. [News Source]

Pitt conducts human tests on fast-track avian flu vaccine (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) Researchers have started human testing of an avian flu vaccine that protects mice against the deadliest and most common strain of the virus. [News Source]

Over 200 bird found dead; administration denies avian flu (Outlook India) Bird flu scare haunted the district after more than 200 birds were found dead in Kotwali area here today. Animal Husbandry department, however, allayed the fear by denied presence of the deadly avian flu in the district. [News Source]

Saudi in new bird flu cull (Middle East Times) Saudi agriculture ministry workers oversee the cull of chickens following the discovery of a new outbreak of avian flu in the Al-Kharj region, south of Riyadh, November 2007. The Saudi agriculture ministry has ordered another cull of 158,000 chickens following the confirmation of a new outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu that is dangerous to humans. [News Source]