Recent News

By Category: Agents & Toxins

Reports of PED in the U.S. Prompt Calls for Steped Up Biosecurity

(Farmscape) The Canadian Swine Health Board is advising Canadian pork producers to step up their focus on biosecurity in the wake of reports of possible outbreaks of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea in the U.S. Possible outbreaks of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea, a viral disease that causes severe watery diarrhea in pigs resulting in high morbidity in sows Read More »

May 24, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Agriculture, and Policy & Initiatives
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Custom flu vaccine developed in a week by synthetic biologists

(DVICE) According to the CDC, not only did the 2012-2013 flu season begin early, but activity of the virus was considered high. Also, the vaccines for that season were only shown to be only around 56% effective in preventing flu-related doctors’ visits. This is a result of the flu virus changing so quickly as it Read More »

May 24, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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Chorizo Likely Source of Las Vegas’s Firefly Salmonella Outbreak | Food Safety News

(FoodSafetyNews) Epidemiologists think they have found the source of a Salmonella outbreak linked to Las Vegas’s Firefly restaurant that is now known to have sickened at least 294 people – almost 100 more illnesses than health officials previously reported. The Southern Nevada Health District announced Wednesday that the outbreak strain of Salmonella had been found Read More »

May 22, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Agriculture, and Public Health
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Mutation makes H5N1 flu lose its grip

(ScienceNews) A mutation that helped make a laboratory version of the H5N1 bird flu transmissible through the air nearly obliterates the ability of the virus to latch onto avian cells. At the same time, the mutation slightly boosts the virus’s ability to infect human cells, an international team of researchers reports April 24 in Nature.

April 25, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Research
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Botulism Antitoxin Wins FDA Approval

(GlobalSecurityNewswire) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has licensed the first drug for counteracting every form of a paralytic, food-borne toxin long feared as an attractive tool to would-be bioterrorists. Botulinum toxin comes from a common form of bacteria and results in around 100 U.S. hospitalizations each year through tainted food and localized infections, according Read More »