C’ttee against Avian Influenza Begins Campaign (This Day) Gombe State Committee Against Avian Influenza has begun a massive grassroots campaign, to enlighten the populace on ways of preventing the disease from getting into the state. [News Source]

Suspected bird flu outbreak has Bengal on alert, final report awaited (Express India) Alerted by the Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, the West Bengal government is bracing itself to contain a possible outbreak of avian flu... [News Source]

Iran bans hunting of birds to prevent bird flu outbreak (Reuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News) Iran has banned bird hunting in its southwestern province to prevent the possible outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the official IRNA news agency said on Sunday. [News Source]

EGYPT: Poultry sellers ignore live sales ban despite new bird flu cases (AlertNet) Source: IRIN Fifteen new suspected cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus were reported last week in five governorates in Egypt as government measures to strengthen national pandemic preparedness provoked mixed reactions in Cairo's streets. [News Source]

Bird flu strikes farm in northeastern Bangladesh (AlertNet) Source: Reuters DHAKA, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Bird flu has killed nearly 500 chickens at a poultry farm in northeastern Bangladesh in what officials said on Sunday was the first outbreak of the disease in that area. ... [News Source]

Key facts about bird-flu virus (Lebanon Daily News) Avian flu — or “bird flu” — is not the same as pandemic flu. However, it may be the source of the next pandemic. It is known that all three of the 20th-century pandemics were related to flu viruses that originally came from birds. [News Source]