By Malcolm Glover
...Though experts (click here) with the state’s Livestock and Poultry Commission say the outbreak was isolated to one farm, Dustan Clark, a veterinarian with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, says farmers must take appropriate precautions to prevent the spread of diseases.
"An avian influenza outbreak can potentially lead to financial and flock losses for poultry producers and owners," Clark said. "Flock owners must do all they can to spot these illnesses and ultimately promote the basic hygiene and sanitation practices necessary to end them."
The H7N7 low-pathogen avian flu was found on a farm in western Arkansas that supplies birds to Tyson Foods, Inc. In a flock of 9,000; testing found about eight birds had the flu....
The previous avian flue H5N1, killed about 70 percent of the people it infects. H7N7 kills about a third of it's victims.
June 26, 2013
...More than a third of patients (click here) infected with a new strain of bird flu died after being admitted to the hospital earlier this year, Chinese researchers report in a new study.
Since the new H7N9 bird flu first broke out in China in late March, the strain has sickened more than 130 people and killed 37. The World Health Organization has previously described H7N9 as "one of the most lethal influenza viruses" it has ever seen and said it appeared to spread faster than the last bird flu strain, H5N1, that threatened to unleash a pandemic....
