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1. [verwijderd] 22 januari 2006 16:03

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   quote:

   Frenky Tornado schreef:

   Beste Gert,
   
   Hier is het abstract van het bewuste artikel:
   
   The ongoing outbreak of avian influenza A virus
   (subtype H5N1) infection in Asia is of great concern
   because of the high human case fatality rate and the
   threat of a new influenza pandemic. Case reports in
   humans and felids suggest that this virus may have
   a different tissue tropism from other influenza viruses,
   which are normally restricted to the respiratory
   tract in mammals. To study its pathogenesis in
   a mammalian host, domestic cats were inoculated
   with H5N1 virus intratracheally (n
   3), by feeding
   on virus-infected chicks (n
   3), or by horizontal
   transmission (n
   2) and examined by virological
   and pathological assays. In all cats , virus replicated
   not only in the respiratory tract but also in multiple
   extra-respiratory tissues. Virus antigen expression
   in these tissues was associated with severe necrosis
   and inflammation 7 days after inoculation. In cats
   fed on virus-infected chicks only, virus-associated
   ganglioneuritis also occurred in the submucosal
   and myenteric plexi of the small intestine, suggesting
   direct infection from the intestinal lumen. All
   cats excreted virus not only via the respiratory tract
   but also via the digestive tract. This study in cats
   demonstrates that H5N1 virus infection causes systemic
   disease and spreads by potentially novel
   routes within and between mammalian hosts. (Am
   J Pathol 2006, 168:176–183; DOI: 10.2353/ajpath.2006.050466)
   
   Groeten :) Frank
   

   Published online: 20 January 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060116-15
   Bird flu's bodily harm revealed
   
   Cat study shows the H5N1 virus attacking gut and other organs.
   Helen Pearson
   
   A cat study suggests that bird flu might spread from people's infected faeces or urine, as well as coughed-out droplets.
   
   
   Avian flu ravages tissues throughout the body, confirms an autopsy of infected cats. The finding suggests that the virus might infect people's guts through what they eat, and spread via contaminated faeces.
   
   Fears about bird flu continue to balloon, and with its arrival in Turkey, the disease has a foot in the door in Europe. The H5N1 strain of the virus has killed more than half of those people it is known to have infected.
   
   Because of fears that the virus will spark a human pandemic, researchers want to know how it is likely to attack the body and jump between people. But they have had little opportunity to answer these questions, in part because only a handful of human victims have been autopsied.
   
   Caught in cats
   
   So a team led by Thijs Kuiken at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, carried out detailed autopsies of infected cats; these mammals are thought to be a reasonable model for human infections. This allowed them to catch a glimpse of the virus at the peak of an infection, rather than waiting until after death.
   
   The team first reported that the H5N1 flu strain could infect domestic cats1 in 2004, a discovery that was startling because cats were previously thought to be immune to the flu. In a follow-up study, published in the American Journal of Pathology this month2, they carefully probed the tissues of eight infected animals.
   
   The virus wreaks havoc in the brain, liver, kidney, heart and numerous other tissues, they find, killing cells and triggering inflammation. By contrast, the flu viruses that strike people in winter largely limit their damage to the nose and lungs.
   
   This discovery backs up earlier studies in mice and ferrets, and may help to explain why the bird flu kills so many of the humans it infects. "It's promiscuous," says veterinary pathologist Corrie Brown, who studies infectious diseases at the University of Georgia, Athens. "It doesn't care what type of cell it invades."
   
   Pass it on
   
   The cat survey highlights two more worrying facts about the virus. The team find that H5N1 can be excreted in cat faeces as well as from the lungs.
   
   Researchers think that people mostly catch the disease by breathing in virus from contaminated bird droppings, but it has not been clear that it could spread between mammals by a faecal-oral route too.
   
   This suggests that avian flu might spread in water contaminated with people's infected faeces or urine as well as in coughed-out droplets. Should a human pandemic begin, this could be a major problem in developing countries where poor sanitation would fuel spread of the disease. "We do need to be aware," Kuiken says.
   
   Careful what you eat
   
   The team also find evidence, for the first time, that the virus can directly attack nerve cells in the gut of cats fed infected chicken meat.
   
   This suggests the virus can directly attack the human intestine too, reinforcing current advice to avoid raw, infected meat. Kuiken says the finding could also explain two reported cases of human avian flu in which patients developed diarrhoea and encephalitis rather than the classic respiratory symptoms.
   
   Researchers already knew that the H5N1 virus, like other pathogenic avian flu viruses, spreads throughout the body of birds. But they are only beginning to identify the genetic tricks that allow H5N1 to march into so many tissues.
   
   Experts are still struggling to predict whether the virus will begin to spread swiftly between humans at all. "I think the greatest precaution we can take now is to control it in birds," Brown says, "That's the seething cauldron of the virus." Cats are not expected to be a major reservoir for the disease.
   
   References
   Kuiken T., et al. Science, 306. 241 (2004). | Article | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
   Rimmelzwaan G. F., et al. American Journal of Pathology, 168. 176 - 183 (2006).
   
   www.nature.com/news/2006/060116/full/...
   
2. [verwijderd] 22 januari 2006 16:04

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   Net op het nieuws...
   
   In Frankrijk is een vrouw opgenomen in Montpellier m.b.t verschijnselen van de vogelgriep. De dame in kwestie was net 2 weken op vakantie geweest in Turkije.
   
   Babs
3. [verwijderd] 22 januari 2006 16:06

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   quote:

   babs11 schreef:

   Net op het nieuws...
   
   In Frankrijk is een vrouw opgenomen in Montpellier m.b.t verschijnselen van de vogelgriep. De dame in kwestie was net 2 weken op vakantie geweest in Turkije.
   
   Babs
   

   
   France investigating possible bird flu case
   22 Jan 2006 13:14:13 GMT
   
   Source: Reuters
   
   
   PARIS, Jan 22 (Reuters) - France is investigating a possible case of bird flu in a French woman who has returned from Turkey, the French health ministry said on Sunday.
   
   "A first test has come out as negative. Other tests are under way," a ministry spokesman said.
   
   The woman, 32, was hospitalised in Montpellier following a two-week stay in the Tarsus region, which, the ministry said, is not known to have be been affected by the disease. The woman had been travelling on her own.
   
   Tarsus lies in Turkey's East Mediterranean part.
   
   Turkey has reported at least four deaths from the H5N1 strain of bird flu this month, bringing the strain to the gates of Europe and the Middle East. The epicentre of Turkey's outbreak is in the east, near to Syria, Iraq, Iran and Armenia.
   
   The woman, who had seen dead birds while travelling the country, showed symptoms of flu combined with breathing difficulties and was hospitalised on Saturday, the ministry said in a statement.
   
   The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 80 people since late 2003. Victims contract the virus through close contact with sick birds, but there are fears it could mutate into a form that can pass easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic.
   
   The French government earlier this month tightened its own protection measures against a possible outbreak of the virus. It has raised the number of departments where poultry must be kept inside to 58 -- almost two thirds of the country -- from 26.
   www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22...
   
4. [verwijderd] 22 januari 2006 16:23

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   Dank zoekmachine voor de accurate aanvulling
   
   :-) Babs
   
5. diederique 22 januari 2006 23:33

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   Bird flu virus survives for days in droppings -WHO
   
   Fri Jan 20, 2006 06:55 PM ET
   
   By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
   
   WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - The H5N1 avian influenza virus can survive for more than a month in bird droppings in cold weather and for nearly a week even in hot summer temperatures, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
   When people become infected with bird flu, they get a high fever and pneumonia very quickly, according to an updated factsheet from the WHO, posted on the Internet at
   www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influen...
   
   The new factsheet incorporates the most recent findings on the avian flu virus, which WHO says is causing by far the worst outbreak among both birds and people ever recorded.
   It has been found from South Korea, across Southeast Asia, into Turkey, Ukraine and Romania. It has infected 149 people and killed 80, according to the WHO figures, which do not include the most recent deaths and infections in Turkey.
   Bird droppings may be a significant source of its spread to both people and birds, the WHO said.
   "For example, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus can survive in bird feces for at least 35 days at low temperature (4 degrees C or 39 degrees F)," the WHO site reads.
   
   "At a much higher temperature (37 degrees C or 98.6 degrees F), H5N1 viruses have been shown to survive, in fecal samples, for six days."
   Poultry, especially those kept in small backyard flocks, are the main source of the virus.
   "These birds usually roam freely as they scavenge for food and often mingle with wild birds or share water sources with them. Such situations create abundant opportunities for human exposure to the virus, especially when birds enter households or are brought into households during adverse weather, or when they share areas where children play or sleep," WHO says.
   
   H5N1 has different qualities from seasonal flu, the WHO said.
   
   LONG INCUBATION PERIOD
   
   "The incubation period for H5N1 avian influenza may be longer than that for normal seasonal influenza, which is around 2 to 3 days. Current data for H5N1 infection indicate an incubation period ranging from 2 to 8 days and possibly as long as 17 days," it said.
   "Initial symptoms include a high fever, usually with a temperature higher than 38 degrees C (100.4 degrees F), and influenza-like symptoms. Diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, chest pain, and bleeding from the nose and gums have also been reported as early symptoms in some patients."
   And with H5N1 infection, all patients have developed pneumonia, and usually very early on the the illness, the WHO said.
   
   "On present evidence, difficulty in breathing develops around five days following the first symptoms. Respiratory distress, a hoarse voice, and a crackling sound when inhaling are commonly seen."
   There is bloody sputum, it said.
   
   "Another common feature is multiorgan dysfunction, notably involving the kidney and heart," WHO said.
   The WHO recommends using Tamiflu, Roche AG's (ROG.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) flu drug known generically as oseltamivir, as soon as possible to treat bird flu.
   
   WHO stresses that H5N1 remains mostly a disease of birds, with tens of millions infected in two years.
   "For unknown reasons, most cases have occurred in rural and periurban households where small flocks of poultry are kept. Again for unknown reasons, very few cases have been detected in presumed high-risk groups, such as commercial poultry workers, workers at live poultry markets, cullers, veterinarians, and health staff caring for patients without adequate protective equipment," it adds.
   "Also lacking is an explanation for the puzzling concentration of cases in previously healthy children and young adults."
   
   © Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
   yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompany...
   
6. [verwijderd] 22 januari 2006 23:50

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   Franse vrouw is dus niet besmet door de vogelgriep... zie NOS-teletekst pagina 123.
   
   Babs
7. [verwijderd] 23 januari 2006 12:02

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   Vlierbessen extract zou H5N1 kunnen neutraliseren:
   
   Laboratory Tests Show Sambucol® Neutralises Common and Avian Flu Virus H5N1
   
   New research, carried out by Retroscreen Virology has indicated that Sambucol®, a patented formula, may fight the virulent Avian Flu virus. Results have been presented yesterday, Wednesday, in a press conference held in the Royal Society of Medicine, London. Speakers included Prof. Hannoun, Emeritus Professor at the Pasteur Institute and Dr. Mumcuoglu, developer of Sambucol®.
   
   (PRWEB) January 21, 2006 -- Laboratory trials held in a leading research institute, Retroscreen Virology Ltd, associated with the University of London found Sambucol® to be at least 99% effective against the Avian Flu virus H5N1. Sambucol® was effective at
   significantly neutralising the infectivity of the virus in cell cultures. These results will also be presented during the International Conference on Bird Flu: “The First Pandemic of the 21st Century. A Central Role for Antivirals”, to be held at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital on January 19th-20th 2006.
   
   Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu, is looking into further investigations into the activity of Sambucol® against Avian Flu on a wider scale.
   
   In an earlier study (1995) Sambucol® was found to be effective against a wide range of influenza strains. Laboratory studies conducted at the Hebrew University – Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem demonstrated the activity
   of Sambucol® against human, swine, and avian influenza strains. Sambucol®'s efficacy was also demonstrated in two double blind, placebo controlled clinical studies. Sambucol® was shown to cut the duration and
   severity of the common flu by up to half.
   
   Notes to editors;
   Sambucol® is based on an active substance isolated from the black elderberry.
   Manufactured by Razei Bar Industries Israel, Sambucol® is available in 17 countries and in the UK is sold in Tesco, leading chemists, independent health food stores and wholesalers from £8.49.
   
   www.prweb.com/releases/2006/1/prweb33...
   
   Ook in Nederland volop te koop......
   
   
   
8. [verwijderd] 23 januari 2006 12:03

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   quote:

   babs11 schreef:

   Franse vrouw is dus niet besmet door de vogelgriep... zie NOS-teletekst pagina 123.
   
   Babs
   

   French woman free from bird flu - health ministry
   22 Jan 2006 19:53:20 GMT
   
   Source: Reuters
   
   
   PARIS, Jan 22 (Reuters) - A French woman who was hospitalised on Saturday tested negative for bird flu, the French health ministry said on Sunday.
   
   Earlier on Sunday, France said it was investigating a possible case of bird flu in the woman who had returned from a two-week stay in the Tarsus region in Turkey.
   
   The woman, who had seen dead birds while travelling in Turkey, showed symptoms of flu combined with breathing difficulties and was hospitalised in Montpellier.
   
   Several tests were done to establish if she was affected by the virus but all the results were negative, the ministry said in a statement.
   
   www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22...
9. [verwijderd] 23 januari 2006 12:29

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   De werking van vlierbessen lijkt toch redelijk onderbouwd, er zijn diverse publicaties i.v.m. remmen influenza o.a.:
   
   J Altern Complement Med. 1995 Winter;1(4):361-9.
   
   Inhibition of several strains of influenza virus in vitro and reduction of symptoms by an elderberry extract (Sambucus nigra L.) during an outbreak of influenza B Panama.
   
   Zakay-Rones Z, Varsano N, Zlotnik M, Manor O, Regev L, Schlesinger M, Mumcuoglu M.
   
   Department of Virology, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
   
   A standardized elderberry extract, Sambucol (SAM), reduced hemagglutination and inhibited replication of human influenza viruses type A/Shangdong 9/93 (H3N2), A/Beijing 32/92 (H3N2), A/Texas 36/91 (H1N1), A/Singapore 6/86 (H1N1), type B/Panama 45/90, B/Yamagata 16/88, B/Ann Arbor 1/86, and of animal strains from Northern European swine and turkeys, A/Sw/Ger 2/81, A/Tur/Ger 3/91, and A/Sw/Ger 8533/91 in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells. A placebo-controlled, double blind study was carried out on a group of individuals living in an agricultural community (kibbutz) during an outbreak of influenza B/Panama in 1993. Fever, feeling of improvement, and complete cure were recorded during 6 days. Sera obtained in the acute and convalescent phases were tested for the presence of antibodies to influenza A, B, respiratory syncytial, and adenoviruses. Convalescent phase serologies showed higher mean and mean geometric hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers to influenza B in the group treated with SAM than in the control group. A significant improvement of the symptoms, including fever, was seen in 93.3% of the cases in the SAM-treated group within 2 days, whereas in the control group 91.7% of the patients showed an improvement within 6 days (p < 0.001). A complete cure was achieved within 2 to 3 days in nearly 90% of the SAM-treated group and within at least 6 days in the placebo group (p < 0.001). No satisfactory medication to cure influenza type A and B is available. Considering the efficacy of the extract in vitro on all strains of influenza virus tested, the clinical results, its low cost, and absence of side-effects, this preparation could offer a possibility for safe treatment for influenza A and B.
   
   Publication Types:
   Clinical Trial
   Randomized Controlled Trial
   
   PMID: 9395631 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
   
10. [verwijderd] 23 januari 2006 14:11

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    DJ Generex Biotechnology Announces FDA Pre-IND Meeting Scheduled For The Avian Flu Vaccine>GNBT
    
    01/23/2006
    Dow Jones News Services
    (Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
    
    
    (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
    
12. [verwijderd] 23 januari 2006 16:04

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    quote:

    Dirk R. Wijnen schreef:

    DJ Generex Biotechnology Announces FDA Pre-IND Meeting Scheduled For The Avian Flu Vaccine>GNBT
    
    01/23/2006
    Dow Jones News Services
    (Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
    
    
    (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
    
    

    GNBT wel mooi zo'n 40% omhoog op dit bericht.
    
    Dirk
13. [verwijderd] 24 januari 2006 07:50

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    Hunting Bird Flu
    Turkey's outbreak is proving to be a good test.
    
    By Rod Nordland
    Newsweek International
    
    Jan. 30, 2006 issue - The appearance of bird flu in Europe, and particularly the outbreak in Turkey, has created several scientific mysteries. Why, for instance, did the disease infect birds almost simultaneously in 13 provinces scattered around the country? Why were more people infected (21 so far) than in any other outbreak since the disease first began infecting humans in 2003? And why have so few of the Turkish victims died—four, perhaps five—compared with previous outbreaks, in which half the human cases proved fatal? As the Turkish outbreak enters its fourth week, most of the people who contracted the disease are now on the mend. One person appears to have caught the virus without getting sick at all.
    
    Doctors and health officials, worried about the threat of a human pandemic, aren't even sure if these developments constitute good news or bad. Europe, though, is turning out to be a better place to study H5N1, the virus that causes bird flu, than Asia ever was. In nine years in Asia, the virus has infected only 144 people, killing 75, usually one or two at a time. As a result, scientists haven't had much chance to observe the way the disease behaves in humans. The outbreak in Turkey has given them an unprecedented opportunity to get to know their foe.
    
    The most evocative mystery concerns the relative mildness of the virus in Turkey compared to Asia. Turks who have contracted the disease have fared relatively well. As of last week, several had already been released from the hospital, some of them only mildly ill. And all of those who died did not, unlike the survivors, get early doses of Tamiflu, the antiviral drug, which has to be administered within 24 hours to be effective. This doesn't sound like the killer disease we've been hearing about. "This could be as bad as H5N1 gets," says Angus Nicoll, an ECDC scientist working in Ankara. "It could be that the virus is in the throes of changing and becoming less pathogenic."
    
    Scientists are quick to point out, however, that it's way too soon to write off H5N1 as a dud. Other explanations for why the Turkish death rate is lower have not been discounted. It could be, for instance, that people in Turkey are simply more resistant to the virus than Asians. Or perhaps Turkish authorities were able to detect cases more quickly. Scientists are waiting with particular interest to learn the lab results on a brother and sister in an Ankara hospital; the girl is only mildly ill, and the boy isn't sick at all. He was taken there as a precaution and then tested positive for the virus. If the virus has turned less deadly, it may actually be more worrisome. Its mildness could enable it to spread more easily in people who have no symptoms, while the virus evolves the ability to pass to other humans. The answers to these questions will bear on how to combat H5N1 in future outbreaks.
    
    The Turkish outbreak has also afforded scientists an opportunity to bring the latest in virus-hunting technology and techniques to bear. As the virus has made its way around the globe, it has been constantly mutating. To track the changes, scientists are using the latest genetic sequencing techniques, which give them a rapid turnaround—with some results in a few days. So far the news is inconclusive. The Medical Research Council lab in Britain has discovered a worrisome mutation in one of its Turkish samples, previously seen in an outbreak in Hong Kong, which made the virus better at infecting humans than chickens. So far, however, they've been able to rule out any recombination with human influenza. Gene-sequencing information can confirm where the victim caught the disease—and so far that seems in every case to be from birds directly. "It's not clear yet that the situation we're observing in Turkey, the number of infections, the virulence, is any different than what we've been seeing in Vietnam," says MRC's Alan Hay. For now, scientists are putting their hopes and fears on hold, and just trying to unravel the virus's genetic secrets.
    msnbc.msn.com/id/10965122/site/newsweek/
14. [verwijderd] 24 januari 2006 08:03

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    Wild birds: vectors or victims of avian flu?
    
    24 Jan 2006 01:01:08 GMT
    
    Source: Reuters
    
    By Ed Stoddard
    
    JOHANNESBURG, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Do the wild birds that fly through cold winter skies to warmer lands silently carry deadly bird flu around the world? Or are they simply potential victims?
    
    With the virulent H5N1 form of bird flu now killing people in Turkey, there is a growing debate about how it is spread.
    
    Many scientists believe migrating wild fowl are responsible for carrying the virus from Asia and Siberia to Romania and Turkey. And although some argue there is not enough evidence yet for firm conclusions, the theory is gaining ground.
    
    "Scientists are increasingly convinced that at least some migratory waterfowl are now carrying the H5N1 virus in its highly pathogenic form, sometimes over long distances, and introducing the virus to poultry flocks in areas that lie along their migratory routes," the World Health Organisation said in its latest bird flu fact sheet last week.
    
    It said scientists found that viruses from the most recently affected countries, all of which lie along migratory routes, were almost identical to viruses recovered from dead migratory birds at Qinghai Lake in China.
    
    The viruses from Turkey's first human cases were also virtually identical to the Qinghai Lake strain, it added.
    
    In Romania, the outbreak was first detected in and around the remote Danube Delta, Europe's largest wetlands which also happen to lie on a major migratory route for wild birds.
    
    "We do know that avian influenza viruses are carried by migratory birds all over the world. But not all of them are highly pathogenic or H5N1," Juan Lubroth, the senior officer for infectious diseases with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told Reuters.
    
    "I think that wild birds may introduce the virus but it is through man and man's marketing systems (the poultry trade) that the disease spreads. It is also possible that poultry can transmit the virus to wildlife when they share the same ecosystem," Lubroth said.
    
    MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
    
    The H5N1 virus has killed at least 80 people since late 2003, mostly in Asia. Victims contract the virus through close contact with sick birds, but there are fears it could mutate into a form that can pass easily from person to person -- making the question of how it is spread across regions so important.
    
    "Should this new role of migratory birds be scientifically confirmed, it will mark a change in a long-standing stable relationship between the H5N1 virus and its natural wild-bird reservoir," WHO said.
    
    The FAO said this month that the virus could spread to Africa and Europe during the northern spring migration.
    
    "The avian influenza virus could become entrenched in the Black Sea, Caucasus and Near East regions through trade ... and it could be further spread by migratory birds particularly coming from Africa in the spring," it said.
    
    The H5N1 strain has not yet been detected in Africa -- not an easy task given already high rates of mortality among the continent's chickens. Tests on dead wild birds from Malawi and Ethiopia have been negative and hundreds of tests of migratory bird droppings in South Africa have found no trace either.
    
    DIRECT EVIDENCE?
    
    The growing popularity of the migratory bird theory has worried an increasingly vocal group of conservationists who fear unfounded claims could lead to indiscriminate slaughters.
    
    "The pattern of outbreaks between Asia and eastern Europe do not follow any known pathway for migrant birds, which tend to fly on northerly-southerly routes. They don't go east-west," Dr Richard Thomas of BirdLife International told Reuters.
    
    Andre Farrar, an ornithologist with Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said if migratory birds were spreading H5N1, it would have been spotted elsewhere.
    
    "Go back a stage and start off in southeast Asia. If migration was the primary route you would have expected it in Australasia but it hasn't shown up there," he said.
    
    However, Farrar said it was prudent to keep looking.
    
    "There is clearly a theoretical risk that migrant birds can carry bird flu. There is published work showing that ducks in captivity can survive H5N1 infection and can shed the virus and we'd be foolish to ignore this," he said.
    
    He said the focus on migratory birds detracted from other, more useful policies to fight the virus like public education, biosecurity measures and curbs on the movement of poultry.
    
    Conservationists say tens of thousands of healthy wild migrant birds in infected countries have been tested over the last decade, but not one has had the virus.
    
    Wild birds that have been found to have the H5 virus, such as swans found in Croatia in October, were already dead -- suggesting they were victims rather than vectors.
    
    BirdLife says the poultry trade is a more likely vector.
    
    "South Korea and Japan are two countries to have suffered outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry and wild birds following importation of infected duck meat," it said in a statement.
    
    "Both countries stamped the virus out by culling infected poultry around disease areas, and imposed strict controls on poultry and poultry meat imports. Neither country has suffered a recurrence of the virus despite the influx each autumn of hundreds of thousands of wild migrant birds," it said.
    
    Conservationists are also concerned about reports of wild birds being killed because of fears of avian flu in several countries from Madagascar to Vietnam.
    www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06...
15. [verwijderd] 24 januari 2006 12:38

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    EU extends import ban on captive birds by 4 months
    24 Jan 2006 11:18:08 GMT
    
    Source: Reuters
    
    BRUSSELS, Jan 24 (Reuters) - European Union veterinary experts on Tuesday extended a ban on imports of captive live birds from outside the bloc for a further four months to guard against the spread of bird flu, the European Commission said.
    
    The ban, which covers captive live birds other than poultry imported for commercial purposes, was first imposed in late October and was set to expire at the end of this month.
    
    "The (bans on) captive birds, and personal imports of pet birds, are both being extended until the end of May," a Commission official told Reuters.
    
    In a statement, the EU executive said the measure was being prolonged to cover the spring migration season, when birds return to their nesting grounds, because of the situation in Turkey and other countries where the disease is still present.
    www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24...
16. [verwijderd] 24 januari 2006 16:53

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    Dutch farmers may reject bird flu vaccination
    
    24 Jan 2006 10:38:21 GMT
    
    Source: Reuters
    
    By Anna Mudeva
    
    AMSTERDAM, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Dutch poultry farmers may reject vaccinating the country's huge poultry population against bird flu for fear consumers would reject their products, industry officials said on Tuesday.
    
    They said the farmers might spurn the government proposal unless they can obtain guarantees the poultry could still be exported.
    
    The Netherlands is one of the world's top poultry exporters but faces trade restrictions, including from European Union members, if it launches a preventive vaccination campaign.
    
    "Trade is very important to us. If it's not possible to export, vaccination is not an option for us and we will not agree with it," Jan Wolleswinkel, chairman of the Dutch poultry farmers organisation, told Reuters.
    
    "If other EU countries start vaccinating as well ... or at least guarantee that they will keep buying our meat, we will agree," Wolleswinkel said.
    
    Earlier this month, the Dutch farm ministry said the government was considering launching mass vaccination in the face of growing fears of a major European bird flu outbreak.
    
    The deadly H5N1 avian flu virus that emerged in Asia has rapidly spread in Turkey, fuelling fears of a bigger European outbreak.
    
    Bird flu experts recommend preventive vaccination to be considered seriously in the tiny and densely populated Netherlands, where risk is seen higher than in the rest of the EU because of its huge numbers of poultry.
    
    The Netherlands, where land is scarce and canals, rivers and ditches are abundant, is home to 16 million people and 90 million poultry.
    
    EXPORTS GUARANTEES
    
    The Dutch Product Board for Livestock, Meat and Eggs said vaccination was not an option unless exports were guaranteed.
    
    "Vaccination could be a solution but if it's an international and not national one," a spokesman said. "We have to make sure that other countries won't stop buying our meat".
    
    The farm ministry has said it aims to submit a vaccination plan with the European Commission in spring, adding biggest fears were about possible trade barriers, which could inflict hundreds of millions of euros in losses on the poultry industry.
    
    A ministry official said the Netherlands, Europe's second biggest poultry producer after France, would most likely have to negotiate its export trading status with every EU member state separately, the outcome of which was uncertain.
    
    The official, who declined to be named, said the vaccination plan would hardly go ahead if the Netherlands fails to secure trade guarantees.
    
    The country exports over 80 percent of its annual poultry meat production of about 600,000 tonnes, mainly to Germany, the UK, Belgium, France, Ukraine, Japan, Poland and Russia. Total poultry industry exports, including meat, eggs and live birds, were worth 1.6 billion euros in 2004.
    
    The EU usually sees vaccination as a last resort and bans livestock and meat imports from countries that use vaccination.
    
    Last month, EU farm ministers agreed to update the bloc's existing bird flu law to increase controls and give governments greater flexibility to vaccinate poultry. There are no signs so far of other EU countries considering preventive vaccination.
    
    The Netherlands suffered a devastating bird flu outbreak of a different strain in 2003, which led to the culling of over a third of the flock. It has not seen new cases since then.
    
    The overall costs, including losses from export bans, reached some 500 million euros in 2003 and the country lost its position as Europe's biggest poultry producer to France.
    
    www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24...
17. [verwijderd] 24 januari 2006 16:55

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    AFGHANISTAN: UN warns of bird flu risk
    24 Jan 2006 15:29:19 GMT
    
    Source: IRIN
    
    KABUL, 24 January (IRIN) - The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that Afghanistan is at risk from avian influenza, also known as bird flu, and has called for US $1.5 million in donor assistance to thwart a possible outbreak of the disease.
    
    "Afghanistan is at a crossroads of the migration routes of many bird species and the country is at risk – the enemy is at the gate," Serge Verniau, FAO representative in Afghanistan, alerted at a press conference at the Qargha Lake, just outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Monday. "We need to act now and in a practical way."
    www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRI...
18. [verwijderd] 24 januari 2006 20:37

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    Publieke opinie in de States krijgt informatie van Oprah Winfrey:
    
    www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200601/...
    
    De volgende onderwerpen:
    
    What is bird flu?
    How does bird flu differ from seasonal flu?
    Should I really be worried?
    Who is most at risk of bird flu?
    Is there a vaccine or prescription drug that can cure the bird flu?
    Will wearing a surgical mask protect me from an outbreak?
    What should I do to prepare for a pandemic?
    How can America prepare for the bird flu?
    
    
19. [verwijderd] 24 januari 2006 20:40

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    1 van de vele sites over vogelgriep, wel een aardige:
    
    www.fluwikie.com/
20. [verwijderd] 24 januari 2006 20:44

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    quote:

    Gert50 schreef:

    Publieke opinie in de States krijgt informatie van Oprah Winfrey:
    
    www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200601/...
    
    De volgende onderwerpen:
    
    How can America prepare for the bird flu?
    
    

    Brus op de bank bij Oprah!
    
    gr.(zo, en nu aan de TBC)
21. [verwijderd] 24 januari 2006 20:46

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    Zullen we een fanclub op gaan zetten Flosz?? Go Ronald go...
    
    Babs