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]

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]

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]

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]

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]