H5 virus hits Japan (H5N1 not yet confirmed): Japan on Thursday confirmed another case of H5 bird flu at a poultry farm in the southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki, a farm ministry official said. Further tests were needed to confirm if the virus was H5N1, she added. Tests had so far confirmed the presence of H5 [...]

H5N1 makes an appearance in Europe: An outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5NI strain of bird flu was confirmed in Hungary on Wednesday, the European Commission said. “The European Commission has been informed by the Hungarian authorities today of an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Csongrad County, southeast Hungary,” the EU executive said [...]

Many countries are doing a better job fighting the H5N1 bird flu virus, yet many outbreaks are not reported, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) officials said on Tuesday. Absolute transparency about disease outbreaks, involving farmers directly in surveillance and reporting as well as compensation were key to make the global fight against bird flu successful, [...]

The US Geological Survey is concerned that an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale which hit the Molucca Sea in Indonesia could cause a tsunami. More soon.

The Spanish flu H1N1 virus of 1918 lives again – fortunately under strict lab conditions. Scientists who recreated “Spanish flu” – the 1918 virus which killed up to 50m people – have witnessed its remarkable killing power first hand. The lungs of infected monkeys were destroyed in just days as their immune systems went into overdrive [...]