Shillong, Feb 10 - Fears of bird flu gripped Shillong Friday and Meghalaya state authorities sounded a general alert after a hundred pigeons were found dead in the state capital, an official said.

The pigeons have died over a month at Keating Road in the heart of Shillong City, and Thursday three more pigeons died of unnatural deaths, said Animal and Husbandry Veterinary director D. Lyngwa.

Mexico City, Feb 6 - A total of 58 people have died of flu in Mexico so far this year. The deaths were caused by different strains of flu virus, the predominant one being swine flu.

As many as 2,815 alive patients have been confirmed to have the infection, the health secretariat said.

From Jan 1 to Feb 2, 93 percent of the deaths were caused by the AH1N1 swine flu, it said.

Of the current cases of infection, 90 percent have been due to the AH1N1 virus.

Bhubaneswar, Feb 4 - Odisha has banned the movement of poultry and related products from an area in the capital Bhubaneswar after a bird flu case surfaced in the city, an official said Saturday.

The state authorities had recently sent three poultry samples from the government-run Central Poultry Development Organisation (CPDO) to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal after several chickens suddenly died.

Agartala, Jan 27 - With a fresh outbreak of bird flu at a government-run farm in western Tripura, authorities Friday started culling more than 1,600 poultry birds to contain spread of the infection, officials said here.

Beijing, Jan 23 - A 39-year-old man in China's southwestern province of Guizhou died Sunday from the bird flu virus H5N1, the health ministry said.

The man felt unwell Jan 6. He was taken to hospital in the provincial town of Guiyang Jan 19 after his health condition deteriorated. Despite intensive therapy, the man died, reported RIA Novosti.

London, Jan 21 : Scientists, who developed a more deadly strain of bird flu, have called for a temporary moratorium on their research on mutations of the H5N1 influenza virus amid fears that that the data could be used by bioterrorists.

In a letter published in Science and Nature, the teams have asked for an "international forum" to debate the risks and value of the studies.

Bhubaneswar, Jan 9 - Odisha has alerted all its district authorities in view of the detection of a bird flu case in the state, an official said Monday.

Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Dec. 20 : A deadly strain of bird flu with the potential to infect and kill millions of people has been created in a laboratory by Dutch scientists who now want to publish full details of how they did it.

Gandhigram, Mar 8: Veterinaries in Tripura have started the process of culling chickens, after an outbreak of Avian Influenza or bird flu in the state.

Veterinarians began the culling on Monday in the state-owned poultry farm in Gandhigram, about 30 kilometres from state capital Agartala.

The poultry farm is one of the main chicken breeding centres in the state with a capacity of about 7,000 chickens.

Officials said about 380 birds had died between the March 1 and March 4, after which samples were sent to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal

Agartala, Feb 19 : Following an outbreak of the deadly avian influenza, Tripura Saturday sounded a bird flu alert and intensified surveillance.

Two central government teams comprising scientists and doctors arrived in Tripura Saturday to assist the state authorities. They are closely monitoring the situation, an official said.

New Delhi, Jan 23 : Nearly 70,000 chickens have been culled in West Bengal's bird-flu hit Murshidabad district, officials said here Thursday.

"The situation is being monitored on a daily basis. So far 69,885 birds have been culled and 6,214 eggs have been destroyed," a statement issued here said.

New Delhi, Jan 22 Bird flu in West Bengal spread to two more localities in Murshidabad district, health authorities here said Friday after over 52,500 birds were culled in the affected areas.

"Two more epicenters surfaced in the Khargram block," a health ministry official said.

Earlier, the outbreak of the flu was reported in Hazrabati and Nagar villages in Murshidabad Jan 14 and in Faridpur village of Burwan block Jan 17.

New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) Over 44,000 poultry birds were culled in West Bengal's bird-flu hit Murshidabad district, officials said Thursday.

"The situation is being monitored on a daily basis. So far 44,967 birds have been culled and 3,352 eggs destroyed," said a statement issued here.

The outbreak of avian influenza was notified in Murshidabad district Jan 14. Since then, officials said, two more epicentres have surfaced - Haripur and Ninur in the district. On Jan 17, Faridpur village of Burwan block was also notified as avian-flu hit.

Bangkok  - Thailand has detected a fresh outbreak of avian influenza among free-range chickens in the norther province of Sukhothai, media reports said Monday.

Livestock Development Department chief Sakchai Sribponsue said lab tests had confirmed that a dead chicken from a family farm had died of an infection with H5N1, the virus subtype causing bird flu.

Washington, Oct 20 : US researchers have found that a single vaccine could be used to protect chickens, cats and humans against deadly flu pandemics.

Goerlitz, Germany - Germany moved Friday against an outbreak of bird flu close to the Polish border, slaughtering 1,400 ducks and geese on a farm at Markersdorf near the city of Goerlitz.

One of the ducks had caught H5N1, the avian influenza virus which can be fatal to human beings. Germany had been considered free of the disease since an outbreak in December last year west of Berlin. (dpa)

London, Aug 14 : Researchers from Nottingham Trent University in Britain are developing a device that can detect an outbreak of bird flu in two hours.

Hanoi - Hundreds of chickens at a poultry farm in southern Vietnam died of avian influenza even though the owner of the farm reported the birds were vaccinated against the disease, an official said Thursday.

Washington, July 9 : Researchers at Mahidol University, Thailand, have discovered how bird flu adapts in patients - offering a new way to monitor the disease and prevent a pandemic.

Despite the ability of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza to spread, it cannot be transmitted efficiently from human to human, which indicates that it is not fully adapted to its new host species, the human.

Hong Kong - A vaccine used to stop outbreaks of the deadly bird flu virus in chickens in Hong Kong for the last seven years is losing its effectiveness, a leading microbiologist warned Tuesday.

Professor Yuen Kwok-yung said the vaccine, which protects chicken from the H5 strain of the virus, is becoming less effective and the city risks further outbreaks because total failure is inevitable.

Islamabad  - Authorities have culled nearly 2,000 broiler chickens following confirmation of a fresh outbreak of avian influenza in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), media reports said Monday.

Jakarta  - Two Indonesian females have died from bird flu, raising the country's death toll from the H5N1 deadly disease to 110 - the world's highest, a Health Ministry official said Friday.

An 16-year-old girl died in South Jakarta on May 14, after exposure to sick and dead poultry. A 34-year-old woman from Tangerang District in Banten Province west of Jakarta died on June 3, said Sumardi, the health ministry's spokesman.

Sumardi, who like many Indonesians goes only by one name, did not provide further details.

Melbourne, June 17: A vaccine to protect people against bird flu has been developed in Australia, said the country’s federal Health Minister.

"The first ever Australian-made vaccine to protect humans from future bird flu pandemics has been granted approval for use in the event, of course, of an avian influenza outbreak," News. com. au quoted Nicola Roxon, as saying.

Hong Kong  - Hong Kong has halted imports of chickens from Britain after tests on poultry at a farm in Oxfordshire were positive for an avian flu virus, a government spokesman said Friday.

The Centre for Food Safety said it had suspended all import applications for poultry and poultry products after the confirmation of the H7 virus, which poses a low threat to humans.

Hong Kong  - Hong Kong researchers are claiming a breakthrough in bird flu treatment with a cocktail of drugs they say may be effective in treating the deadly virus in humans.

The findings, published Wednesday in a US science journal, claim the cocktail increased survival rates by fourfold when tested on mice infected with H5N1.