Wildlife officials to start conducting bird flu tests (The Palm Beach Post) As the migratory game bird season gets under way, wildlife officials announced this week that they will begin their annual testing of bagged game birds for the avian flu. Participation is voluntary, and biologists will test the birds' respiratory and digestive tracks at several duck-hunting hot spots throughout the state. [News Source]

How avian flu dupes our immune system: study (TODAYonline) An Indian health team holds a rooster during a cull after an outbreak of bird flu at the village of Sukna, on the outskirts of Siliguri in May 2008. The deadly H5N1 flu virus disarms the human immune system by hiding bits of genetic material that would normally trigger an infection alarm, according to a study published Thursday. [News Source]

Birds of a feather: Commercial producers play chicken with avian flu. A new study shows that the world's 40 billion commercial chickens—raised for their meat and eggs—have half the genetic diversity possible in the chicken genome, rendering them susceptible to other crippling disease outbreaks. [News Source]

Raccoons spread flu, study shows. New research shows the pesky critters - called the animal world's Typhoid Mary by one of the study's authors - can catch and spread both human and avian strains of influenza. [News Source]

Protein ‘tubules’ free avian flu virus from immune recognition (EurekAlert!) ( Baylor College of Medicine ) A protein found in the virulent avian influenza virus strain called H5N1 forms tiny tubules in which it "hides" the pieces of double-stranded RNA formed during viral infection, which otherwise would prompt an antiviral immune response from infected cells, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in an online report in the journal Nature. [News Source]

Workshop on Avian Influenza opens in Sunyani (Ghanaweb.com) Sunyani (B/A), Nov. 3, GNA - A workshop aimed controlling outbreak and transmission of Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) in the West African sub-region was at the weekend open in Sunyani, capital town of Brong Ahafo. [News Source]