Researchers Tian Xia and Zijie Lin test a plasma prototype for preventing airborne transmission of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus at a Michigan pig farm.
Robert Coelius/Michigan Engineering, Communications & Marketing
Viruses are small enough to pass through filters, including face masks. Disabling viruses with electrically charged gases could be a better way to curb airborne transmission.
Wuhan University Sakura Castle, one of the oldest in China with the city in the backdrop. December 2018.
Howchou/Wikimedia
China has started exporting cooked chicken meat to the United States. Is it safe to eat? An agriculture extension specialist discusses possible concerns about food safety and contamination.
After the Spanish flu we didn’t see any new flu strains for forty years. Now novel strains are increasingly popping up.
Carlos Barria/Reuterspics
An active outbreak of a type of bird flu in China raises concerns about worldwide pandemics. Ebola and Zika viruses still threaten. Here’s why this is not the time to cut funding.
Red-billed Teal and Egyptian Geese were identified as the highest risk species for avian influenza transmission in southern Africa.
Shutterstock
Functional early warning systems help countries respond to a disease before it spreads.
A Ugandan chicken farmer rides to market in this file photo. In the wake of an outbreak of avian flu farmers have been told to quarantine their poultry.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
What would you do if a zombie apocalypse occurred? I recommend going to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) zombie website for information. It is incredible (see it here). While the zombie website…
Livestock and farmers most at risk.
Cull by Shutterstock
The UK has just recorded its second outbreak of bird flu in less than three months. At the end of November, the relatively new subtype H5N8 – which was first spotted in late 2009 in China and which has…
Officals move in to contain virus in Yorkshire.
Steve Parkin/PA
A single case of avian influenza, also known as bird flu, has been confirmed at a farm in East Yorkshire. We still don’t know what strain of virus is behind it but health officials, and no doubt the public…
Emergencies can happen at the zoo. Staff train to be prepared.
Yuriko Nakao/Reuters
You need only look at the papers or television news to see the reports. Infectious disease outbreaks, weather emergencies and disasters both natural and man-made. They’re all not just threats to human…
Lack of exposure to a particular influenza strain means you won’t have had a chance to build up complete immunity. And if the strain spreads easily between people and there is little immunity in communities…
Where doe outbreaks of avian influenza come from?
Flickr/cskk
While Hong Kong has just reported its first case of the deadly H7N9 bird flu indicating that the virus may be spreading across China, Australia is reporting an egg shortage over Christmas as a result of…
After standing in line for the latest year’s flu jab one might wonder why all this in necessary. The answer lies in the flu virus itself and its ability to rapidly evolve and avoid the human immune system…
Viral workload: how did H7N9 make the human-to-human leap?
James Gathany
The H7N9 virus is thought to have been transmitted between a 60-year-old man in China and his 32-year-old daughter, who cared for him. Experts said she had been previously healthy and, unlike her father…