| Disaster zones declared | | Posted Sunday, January 21, 2007 1:11:25 PM by Blog57 Team | | All 16 districts in this central province have been declared disaster zones to help public health authorities with the mass culling of poultry in bird flu-prone areas. A ban on fowl movements throughout the province, especially free-range ducks from other provinces, has also been enforced. Provincial Governor Cherdpan na Songkhla, who issued the order yesterday, said areas where bird flu had previously been confirmed, such as Bang Pahan, Phak Hai and Bang Pa-in districts, were still at risk because the virus remained dormant in water resources and residential areas. Provincial health official Rattanachai Chullanet said the latest laboratory tests showed that Boonlert Chuenruedee, 43, a free-range duck raiser, was not infected with bird flu virus after he helped bury dead ducks and later developed a high fever and sore throat.... | |
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| | | Risks From Animal Diseases Growing | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 11:08:01 AM by Blog57 Team | | Diseases spread by birds, mosquitoes, cattle, and other animals are a growing problem for humans -- affecting millions of people a year, according to a new study. The recent outbreaks of bird flu and mad cow disease have raised awareness of the danger of diseases spread by animals to humans, known as zoonotic viruses, the researchers say. Although those two new diseases have affected a relatively small number of people, more common zoonotic diseases like dengue fever and rabies kill tens of thousands of people each year worldwide and appear to be on the rise, the researchers write. For example, during the study period from 2000 to 2005: Rabies, spread by infected dogs, bats, rats, and other animals, killed an estimated 30,000 people.... | |
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| | | Avant, Pfizer Collaborate on Animal Vaccines | | Posted Monday, October 30, 2006 1:25:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | Shares of Avant Immunotherapeutics (AVAN - commentary - Cramer's Take) moved 13% higher Wednesday on news of a collaborative research and development agreement with Pfizer (PFE - commentary - Cramer's Take) to develop animal health vaccines. Pfizer will fund the research collaboration, which will use vaccine technologies owned by Avant. The two are looking to develop vaccines to protect livestock and companion animals from respiratory and enteric diseases. Financial terms were not disclosed. Shares of Avant were up 17 cents to $1.45 in recent trading Wednesday, while Pfizer shares were down 18 cents, or 0.7%, at $28.22. RELATED NEWS TO THIS ARTICLE MOST POPULAR STORIES .... | |
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| | | Indian Immunologicals bags Animal Pharm award for corporate social responsibility | | Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 3:30:30 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Hyderabad-based Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) bagged the Best Corporate Social Responsibility (including animal welfare measures, MUMS activity and/or environmental care) Award for its programme "Operation Pratirodh" at Animal Pharm's inaugural Animal Health Industry Excellence Awards held in London. Animal Pharm-UK conferred the award on Indian Immunologicals Limited, for its programme to make cattle vaccination affordable and accessible to rural Indian farmers and for its outstanding contribution and services to the rural farmers, "OPERATION PRATIRODH" won the Corporate Social Responsibility award, which was sponsored by Informa Life Sciences. Indian Immunologicals is the only company outside the developed world companies, which won an award this year.... | |
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| | | Ped Med: Misstep seen in shot safety study | | Posted Saturday, October 21, 2006 3:05:28 PM by Blog57 Team | | SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Researchers analyzing new study results have concluded the government at least partly botched its job when it was assessing the danger posed by the mercury-based preservative thimerosal that once was widely used in children's vaccines. The story begins in the fall of 1971 with a mission of mercy to famine-ravaged Iraq. In October of that year, the country received 90,000 metric tons of wheat seed, which, intended for planting as crops, had been treated with methylmercury, a fungicide similar to yet, as new research suggests, significantly different from the ethylmercury found in thimerosal. Rather than being put in the ground in the rural communities that acquired it, much of the seed instead was ground and baked as bread. Of the estimated 50,000 consumers of the treated wheat, more than 6,000 were hospitalized for mercury poisoning, 450 died and many pregnant women gave birth to children with mental retardation, seizures, impaired vision or hearing and other birth defects.... | |
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| | | EMERYVILLE / Animal rights group loses lawsuit appeal / Free speech doesn't apply to illegal conduct, court says | | Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 7:12:29 PM by Blog57 Team | | A state appeals court rejected an animal rights group's free-speech challenge Thursday to a lawsuit accusing the group of conspiring with protesters who harassed Chiron Corp. executives, vandalized their homes and bombed the company's Emeryville headquarters. The organization, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA, claimed Chiron's February 2004 suit for harassment and invasion of privacy was an attempt to stifle freedom of expression. But the First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco said state laws against suits that interfere with free speech do not apply to illegal conduct. The court said there was ample evidence that the organization conspired with lawbreakers. Chiron, now owned by Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, makes vaccines and blood-testing products. It has employed Huntingdon Life Sciences, a New Jersey company, to conduct animal testing in the past.... | |
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| | | Humane Society to mark 30th year with festival | | Posted Wednesday, October 11, 2006 7:07:12 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Humane Society of North Central Arkansas will hold a fall festival event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 28 at its facilities behind the thrift shop it operates on State Highway 201 North. The nonprofit organization is holding a sale being billed as "Baxter County's largest garage sale" to commemorate its 30th anniversary, and to raise money to cover the cost of animal food and vaccines. .... | |
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| | | Avant Signs Agreement With Pfizer for Development of Animal Health Vaccines | | Posted Friday, October 06, 2006 11:07:22 AM by Blog57 Team | | AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVAN) announced today the signing of an extended collaborative research and development agreement with Pfizer Inc aimed at the discovery and development of vaccines to protect animals. The collaboration will employ vaccine technologies owned by AVANT. Under the agreement, Pfizer and AVANT will conduct a joint research program funded by Pfizer to develop prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines to protect livestock and companion animals from respiratory and enteric diseases. Financial terms were not disclosed. "We are very pleased to extend our collaboration with Pfizer to leverage the value of AVANT's vaccine technology in a significant market opportunity outside AVANT's own focus on human health care," said Una S. Ryan, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc.... | |
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| | | New Data Examines TYGACIL (Tigecycline) in Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia | | Posted Sunday, October 01, 2006 3:05:36 PM by Blog57 Team | | MADISON, N.J., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth , presented data today from Phase III studies in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) at the 46th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in San Francisco, California. Community-acquired pneumonia is defined as pneumonia not acquired in a hospital or long-term care facility. CAP affects approximately 5.6 million Americans each year. According to the integrated data from two investigational clinical studies that included 846 patients, TYGACIL(R) cured 89.7 percent of patients hospitalized with CAP, compared to levofloxacin - an existing treatment option for CAP, which cured 86.3 percent of studied patients. The difference between these cure rates was not statistically significant.... | |
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| | | Animal Vaccine Centre to be functional by year-end | | Posted Sunday, October 01, 2006 1:06:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | Muzaffarnagar, Sept. 30 (PTI): An animal vaccine quality control research centre, the first of its kind in India, will start functioning by the end of this year in neighbouring Baghpat district, an official said on Friday. The centre will help in managing the quality of animal vaccines, Principal Secretary in Union Animal Husbandary Department, Charu Shila Sohama, said here on Friday. The Centre will also help in vaccine quality control of imported and exported goods, she said adding that this research centre will be the one of its kind in the country. National .... | |
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