New Product from Abaxis (Zacks.com via Yahoo! Finance) Abaxis launched its first product, a rapid Avian Influenza Antigen Test, in the production animal diagnostics market ... [News Source]

May take a year to conquer H1N1 flu pandemic – WHO (AlertNet) Source: Reuters * WHO chief Chan says will take 6-12 months to conquer H1N1 * World not ready to combat H5N1 bird flu pandemic, she says (Recasts after news conference with fresh quotes) By Stephanie Nebehay ... [News Source]

One of L.A. County’s last slaughterhouses could go on the chopping block. Chinese American Live Poultry serves freshly plucked birds to a largely immigrant clientele. Neighbors complain the facility smells and the Rosemead Planning Commission has voted to shut it down. [News Source]

Retailers jockey to market swine-flu shots. Pharmacies, supermarkets and other retailers are jockeying to become the go-to provider for swine-flu vaccinations, in a bid to attract more customers and, in many cases, promote their in-store health clinics. [News Source]

WHO chief says too early to say if swine flu pandemic has peaked everywhere. It is too early to declare that the swine flu pandemic has peaked worldwide and many more people could become sick with the virus this winter, the head of the World Health Organization said in an interview published Tuesday. [News Source]

May take a year to conquer H1N1 flu pandemic – WHO (AlertNet) Source: Reuters * WHO chief Chan says will take 6-12 months to conquer H1N1 * World not ready to combat H5N1 bird flu pandemic, she says GENEVA, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The H1N1 flu pandemic may not be conquered ... [News Source]

New drug may be better against H1N1, bird flu (Dunn County News) An experimental new drug could be more effective than existing drugs against swine flu and bird flu, a UW-Madison researcher found. [News Source]

American Indians hit hard by swine flu. Although H1N1 has proven less deadly than originally anticipated, it has taken a serious toll on American Indians. [News Source]

Avian flu anti-viral is promising in tests (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) A team of scientists led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist has published dramatic evidence showing that a compound called T-705 could be a promising weapon against deadly avian influenza. [News Source]

‘Rapidly fatal’ swine flu kills in different ways. People who die of swine flu contract a "rapidly fatal" form of the disease and tend to die of lung injury, although it strikes different people in different ways, an autopsy study showed Thursday. [News Source]

Swine flu remains widespread in California but is abating. California is one of only seven states where H1N1 influenza is still widespread, but a variety of indicators suggest that this wave of the pandemic is abating even here, Dr. Mark Horton, director of the state Department of Public Health, said Thursday. [News Source]

Compound Found To Safely Counter Deadly Bird Flu (Medical News Today) The specter of a drug-resistant form of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza is a nightmare to keep public-health officials awake at night. Now, however, a study published this week (Dec. 21) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that a new compound, one on the threshold of final testing in humans, may be more potent and safer for treating "bird flu" than the ... [News Source]