Recent News

By Region: North America

Cattle or People?

(Huffington Post) The National Research Council has issued a report identifying “a number of deficiencies” in an “updated risk assessment” done by the federal government for the National Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF) it wants to build in Kansas to replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Center just off Long Island, New York. U.S. Read More »

July 9, 2012
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Keeping the flu away

(EurekAlert!) San Diego State University researchers at the Donald P. Shiley BioScience Center may have found the secret to helping the immune system fight off the flu before it gets you sick. A new study published today in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, finds that EP67, a powerful synthetic protein, is able Read More »

July 9, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Research
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Homeland Security Department develops foot-and-mouth disease vaccine

Los Angeles Times- It’s not often that the Department of Homeland Security makes it into a science blog, but this is an unusual week. The department announced this week that it has developed the first vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease that can be manufactured and licensed in the United States and that could be used in Read More »

July 6, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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Avian influenza outbreaks continue to rise

(FarmersWeekly) Mexican officials dealing with an outbreak of avian influenza have declared a state of national emergency. The news comes as the World Organisation for Animal Health has confirmed China is dealing with a fresh outbreak of the disease. H5N1 was identified in a remote part of north-west China, in the province of Xinjiang on Read More »

July 6, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agriculture, and Public Health
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Biosafety experts comment on reported CDC lab problems

(CIDRAP) News reports about possible airflow problems at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) lab in Atlanta are fueling perceptions that the agency isn’t following its own rules, but the reported conditions at the lab don’t appear to have posed a public health threat, according to some expert Read More »