Bird flu planning pays off for Valley health officials (The Fresno Bee) The swine-flu threat couldn't come at a worse time for the central San Joaquin Valley, where public-health workers have struggled for resources in the recession. But they have a plan. [News Source]

Novartis Investigational Adjuvanted (MF59) Pre-pandemic Avian Influenza Vaccine Aflunov® Shows Long Lasting, … (Medical News Today) A study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America shows that Aflunov®, the Novartis investigational pre-pandemic avian influenza vaccine formulated with Novartis' proprietary MF59® adjuvant, can elicit a broadly cross-reactive i [News Source]

How swine flu virus hopscotched the globe. In this age of global trade and travel, the swine flu outbreak has proven itself a global illness—a strange new virus that respects no border as it hopscotches from the dirt roads of Mexican villages to the concrete canyons of big-city America to a glittering Hong Kong hotel. [News Source]

Farming the flu. As health officials try to guess where the so-called swine flu will show up next, other researchers are trying to track the virus to its origins. A number of experts suspect large-scale factory farms. [News Source]

Swine flu name change? Flu genes spell pig. While the U.S. government and now the World Health Organization are taking the swine out of "swine flu," the experts who track the genetic heritage of the virus say this: If it is genetically mostly porcine and its parents are pig viruses, it smells like swine flu to them. [News Source]

Swine flu smolders while scientists keep watch. The swine flu outbreak persists at a smoldering stage: It might die down to nothing, or it might flare up into a pandemic causing widespread illness around the world. No one can predict. [News Source]

Scientists trace ancestry of swine flu virus to 1998 outbreak. The new H1N1 influenza virus that continues to spread through the U.S. has ancestry in a swine flu outbreak that first struck a North Carolina hog farm more than 10 years ago, according to scientists studying the strain's genetic makeup. [News Source]

Animal bugs our biggest risk. Experts agree the planet's increasing population -- and the resulting collision of animal and human habitats -- is making the emergence of dangerous new diseases like swine flu from animal hosts more common and likelier. [News Source]

The pandemic threat. The world's policymakers should remember that, even if this recent flu strain turns out to be less frightening than feared, it is only a matter of time before a deadlier one comes along. A drill today will help to spare millions of lives in the future. [News Source]

Intensive farming of animals is at the heart of swine flu pandemic. Just as an unsustainable financial system caused the current banking crisis, the intensive farming of animals is at the heart of the swine flu pandemic. [News Source]

The age of pandemics. The threat of deadly new viruses is on the rise due to population growth, climate change and increased contact between humans and animals. What the world needs to do to prepare. [News Source]

Swine flu: A health warning. A groundswell of opinion is growing that the swine flu "pandemic" has been hyped by newspapers and broadcasters eager for a scare story that boosts revenues, and by scientists sensing where their next research grant is coming from. [News Source]