| Threat of bird flu ruffles few businesses' feathers
Despite dire predictions that an influenza pandemic is possible, the majority of business leaders in Northeastern Wisconsin don't believe this area is vulnerable and aren't prepared for such an outbreak. In a recent survey conducted for the Nicolet Bank Business Pulse, 52 percent of business executives say that such an outbreak striking Northeastern Wisconsin is "not likely" in the near future. Only 1 percent believe a flu pandemic is "very likely." "It (influenza) hasn't been on the radar screen and many people in Wisconsin might feel removed about what's happening," said David Wegge of IntellectualMarketing, the research firm that designed and conducted the survey in late April. "And when you look at national studies, it's the companies that do global business that are a bit more prepared." The Nicolet Bank Business Pulse is a regular survey of executives from Brown, Calumet, Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Marinette, Oconto, Outagamie, Shawano and Winnebago counties.
US bird flu case ‘no risk to humans’
"Test results thus far indicate this is low pathogenicity avian influenza, which poses no threat to human health," the US Department of Agriculture said in a statement. Testing has been done on the two wild mute swans, which were found in the northeastern US state of Michigan, as part of an extensive surveillance programme meant to head off the spread of bird flu in the United States. The swans, which did not show any signs of illness, were sampled on August 8 at the Mouillee state game area located on the coast of Lake Erie as part of the ongoing US monitoring programme. Officials, who said they were investigating how the birds were infected, surmise that the much weaker variant of the disease which the swans have contracted might have come from two separate sources, rather than a single, virulent one.
Indonesia girl dies from bird flu virus in afflicted village
A nine-year-old Indonesian girl who died this week had bird flu according to two local tests and the village where she lived is rife with the disease, the health ministry said on Thursday. The girl died on Tuesday in a hospital in West Java's Cikelet village where there are many sick and dead chickens, said Runizar Ruesin, the head of the health ministry's bird flu information centre. Her death takes Indonesia's toll from the disease to 45, the highest of any country. "Bird flu is rife in Cikelet. You can always find dead or sick chickens there," Ruesin told Reuters. A 17-year-old-boy in the same village has also tested positive for bird flu, but has stayed at home and refused to be treated at the main hospital in Bandung, the provincial capital to the south of Jakarta.
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