Ear to the Ground

One Sick Chicken

Michael Balter / Truthdig May 16, 2023 How the poultry industry complicates preparations for an avian flu pandemic. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Ear to the Ground

Keeping a Bird’s Eye on Bird Flu

Michael Balter / Truthdig May 3, 2023 Scientists are monitoring mutations in H5N1, a pathogenic avian flu that may be moving in our direction. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Bird Flu

Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Cagle Cartoons May 2, 2015 Dig deeper

New Bird Flu Reported in Taiwanese Woman

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Nov 15, 2013 Sources in Taiwan say that a previously unseen variant of avian influenza infected a 20-year-old woman in that country in the first recorded case of an H6N1 virus infecting and causing disease in a human. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Deadly Antiviral Resistant Flu Appears in China

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig May 29, 2013 Chinese researchers reported the first ever clinically documented case of resistance to the antiviral medication Tamiflu in patients infected with the H7N9 bird flu. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

New Bird Flu Jumps to Humans, Kills 6 in China

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Apr 5, 2013 Chinese officials have closed poultry markets and ordered a mass slaughter of birds in Shanghai amid an outbreak of a type of avian flu that has not been seen in humans. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Scientist: Make Bird Flu Mutation Research Available Now

Staff / Truthdig Jan 26, 2012 University of Tokyo scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka is making the case for unfettered access to studies in which researchers made a lethal bird flu virus even deadlier by taking it airborne. To those determined to find it, the recipe is already available, he warns, and the mutation could occur outside the laboratory at any moment. All hands to the urgent task of developing a vaccine, then. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Scientists Make Killer Flu Virus Even Deadlier

Staff / Truthdig Dec 28, 2011 More than half of the people infected with H5N1 -- the bird flu virus -- are dead, so it's a damned good thing the virus isn't airborne. That is, until now. U.S.-funded researchers in the Netherlands have successfully engineered a viral H5N1 strain that can spread through the air, realizing fears of a potentially weaponized germ that infects easily and kills half its victims. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Dutch Scientists Monkey With the Bird Flu Virus

Staff / Truthdig Nov 30, 2011 In what may turn out to be a really bad idea, Dutch scientists have created a strain of the bird flu virus that maintains its 60 percent kill rate and is easily transferred between mammals, and they’re looking to tell the world how they did it. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Japan Killing 410,000 Chickens Over Bird Flu Fears

Staff / Truthdig Jan 25, 2011 Japanese authorities aren't waiting for test results, although it will take days to cull the animals. A strain of flu was identified at a poultry farm, prompting a series of safety precautions. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

FEMA’s Got a Handle on Bird Flu … if There’s a Stiff Breeze

Andy Borowitz / Truthdig Apr 8, 2006 Satirist Andy Borowitz reports that our emergency preparedness experts have the bird flu situation under control. Mostly, they're counting on a natural disaster to wipe out the bird population. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )