Poultry program’s changes aim to stiffen avian flu safeguards (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy) Apr 2, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) approval yesterday of two more avian influenza (AI) tests for use in a voluntary national poultry health program will improve the protection of US flocks from avian flu, according to USDA officials and animal health experts. [News Source]

Boy, 3, dies of bird flu in Vietnam (BigPond News) A three-year-old Vietnamese boy has died of avian influenza after four days in hospital, a health official says. [News Source]

Bird flu cases raise questions (BigPond News) A probe into an outbreak of bird flu in Hong Kong has raised questions over whether the H5N1 virus is going undetected. [News Source]

Bird flu quarantine on British Columbia farms ends (AG Weekly) VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) _ A bird flu-related quarantine has been lifted on 22 poultry farms in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver. The restrictions were lifted after three weeks of surveillance and testing by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. [News Source]

Egyptian boy contracts bird flu virus. A two-year-old Egyptian boy has contracted the highly pathogenic bird flu virus, bringing to 61 the number of confirmed cases in the most populous Arab country, state news agency MENA said on Wednesday. [News Source]