What would happen to your business if 40 percent of your workers didn't show up for work for two weeks straight? That's a question that the U.S. government and regional chambers of commerce want American businesses to ask themselves as

Q2 earnings fall 63 per cent as chicken prices decline here and abroad Charoen Pokphand Foods yesterday announced a 63-per-cent drop in its second-quarter net profit, the fall being mainly attributed to the declining domestic price of chicken as a

New proposals for dealing with an influenza pandemic envisage the establishment of up to 200 special clinics and a network of flu hospitals and communal homes for those in need of in-patient care. The proposals were drawn up after the

A 17-year-man who died of bird flu in Thailand last week, the country's first case this year, suggests the virus is being under-reported in poultry, the influenza team at the European Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control said. The youth

A swan found dead in a zoo in the eastern German city of Dresden was infected with the highly infectious H5N1 strain of bird flu which is dangerous for humans, the local government said on Friday. A government spokeswoman in

State offers low-interest loan program for prevention Commercial poultry producers are well defended against the bird flu, agriculture leaders say, but Minnesotans who own flocks of just a few birds also need to take precautions. It doesn't cost much money

Expanding its longstanding coverage and counsel regarding the avian flu, MEDEX Assistance today launched a comprehensive new website that provides the very latest authoritative updates on the potential pandemic. One of the world's leading providers of 24/7 emergency medical, security

A 17-year-man who died of bird flu in Thailand last week, the country's first case this year, suggests the virus is being under-reported in poultry, the influenza team at the European Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control said. The youth

Asia's bird flu threat intensified as suspected human cases were reported in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, indicating a fresh wave of outbreaks of the virus that began spreading in the region almost three years ago. A patient in Thailand's Chachoengsao

A Chinese man who was diagnosed with bird flu in June has recovered and been released from hospital, but where and how he picked up the virus is still a mystery, state media said on Thursday. The 31-year-old truck driver

Researchers who combined a human flu virus with the H5N1 bird flu virus say that none of the hybrid viruses produced were capable of triggering a pandemic. Their study, which was carried out in ferrets, is published online this week

Vaccines that protect against three strains of seasonal influenza considered most likely to strike the Northern Hemisphere this winter have received federal approval. The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that four manufacturers licensed to sell their vaccines in the

Although many scientists have been concerned that the H5N1 bird flu virus may mutate one day and become easily human transmissible, a recent study seems to indicate that it might not spread easily among humans. Researchers from the Centers for

In research published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, CDC scientists reported that a simulation of one of two main paths the H5N1 virus could take to adapt itself to humans — mixing genes with

U.S. researchers use ferrets in trials aimed at replicating a mutation, but infection rate is low. An experiment combining bird flu with a common human strain failed to create a pandemic virus, suggesting that it may be more difficult for

Tourism representatives in Thailand have expressed concern after last week's first reported bird flu death in the country in seven months. Tourism is critical to the Thai economy and the industry is urging the government to control the latest bird

Badminton players in the US have become the latest group to suffer the consequences of bird flu, claiming its spread is fuelling a shortage of top-quality, goose-feather shuttlecocks.They say that bird flu's progress around the globe - and the resultant

Scientists say virus must change significantly for humans to pass on the strain A bird flu pandemic may not come as soon as some public health experts have feared. Federal scientists studying the disease have found evidence suggesting the avian

U.S. scientists who artificially engineered viruses containing genes from both the worrisome H5N1 avian flu virus and one that causes human flu found the resulting offspring failed to achieve the one feature H5N1 lacks to trigger a pandemic - transmissibility.

A British drug manufacturer announced Wednesday that it has developed what appears to be the most effective bird flu vaccine created so far, and that it can be made in sufficient quantities for widespread distribution in case of an outbreak.