Bird flu, SARS out there, looking for right host (CHCH News) OTTAWA - They probably never really go away, but happily lurk in a hospitable host until conditions are right. Then suddenly, viruses like SARS - severe acute respiratory syndrome - and avian influenza are grabbing headlines again. [News Source]

EXTRA: New virus less lethal than bird flu, SARS, Mexico says (EARTHtimes.org) Mexico City - The new variant of influenza, A(H1N1), which has killed 15 people in Mexico and one in the United States, is less lethal than bird flu and SARS that have killed more than 1,000 people in Asia since 2003, Mexican Health Minister Jose Ang... [News Source]

Germ sleuths stalk origin of killer flu. A picture is now emerging of how health officials first realized they faced a new type of disease and began racing to isolate its earliest origins. Until recently, Mexico was widely assumed to be ground zero. Now, however, some doctors are questioning that. [News Source]

Pig owners outraged over Egypt’s decision to slaughter all beasts. Egypt has ordered the immediate cull of all pigs in the country as a precaution against swine flu - the first such move in the world. [News Source]

Swine flu: Why such a huge response to so few cases? Given the relatively small footprint of the swine flu so far, why has the US and the world community responded so overwhelmingly? The answer: caution in the face of what scientists and public-health officials say they don't know about the virus. [News Source]

Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu. Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precaution against swine flu even though no cases have been reported here, infuriating farmers who blocked streets and stoned vehicles of Health Ministry workers. [News Source]

New flu virus may be a real mongrel, study shows. The new virus that has killed as many as 177 people and spread globally is a mongrel that appears to have mixed with another hybrid virus containing swine, bird and human bits, U.S. researchers reported Thursday. [News Source]

As swine flu circles globe, scientists grapple with basic questions. When the swine flu first was reported scientists and health officials around the world are on alert But, despite the rapid response, some say the world hasn't done nearly enough over the past 10 years to prepare for a pandemic. [News Source]

Virus’s tangled genes straddle continents, raising a mystery about its origins. A new flu strain appears to have a combination of genes from two separate sets of pigs--those from the Americas and from Eurasia. But it is unknown how those pigs met, and there is not yet any genetic proof that the flu was ever in a pig. [News Source]

German virologist’s race for swine flu test. Christian Drosten, head of one of Germany's largest medical virology centres, spoke to Nature about how he has managed to develop a diagnostic test for the H1N1 swine flu, thanks to his experience with SARS. [News Source]

Pig flu might not fly if we go organic. Clearly keeping animals packed together in unnatural conditions is conducive to the breeding and mutation of viruses. Most food scares of recent years — dioxin contamination of Irish pork, salmonella in chicken — come down to intensive farming practices done on the cheap. [News Source]