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By Region: South Asia

Sharad Pawar introduces Agricultural Biosecurity Bill in Lok Sabha

(IndiaTimes) Agriculture Minister SharadPawar today introduced a bill in the LokSabha for establishment of an authority that will ensure biosecureglobal trade in farm items. The bill assumes importance as it intends to put in place a better regime of quarantining and controlling pests and even “exotic species” that are finding their way into India.

March 12, 2013
| Filed under South Asia and Policy & Initiatives
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India Completes First Biodefense Level 4 Lab

(GlobalBiodefense) Officials from the Indian Council of Medical Research last week announced completion of the nation’s first Bio-Safety Level 4 (BSL 4) high containment laboratory. The new biodefense lab is located on the main campus of the Microbial Containment Complex at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. The complex had already been operating Read More »

March 12, 2013
| Filed under South Asia, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Southeast Asia hot spot for ‘microbe hunters’

(TheAsahiShimbun) Toward the end of November on Vietnam’s Con Dao Islands in the South China Sea, a line of 10 people hiked along a mountain trail hidden under a canopy of lush greenery. These were Japanese and Vietnamese “microbe hunters” in search of new species that could prove beneficial in the development of pharmaceuticals and Read More »

March 11, 2013
| Filed under South Asia and Research
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India Completes High-Security Biodefense Lab

(GlobalSecurityNewswire) India on Tuesday announced the completion of its first Biosafety Level 4 laboratory, which could conduct research involving lethal disease agents that could pose a bioterrorism threat. Biosafety Level 4 laboratories are authorized to work with materials that cause the world’s most dangerous diseases, including those for which there is no known cure.

March 8, 2013
| Filed under South Asia, Biosafety, Biotechnology, and Policy & Initiatives
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Resistance to first line anti-malarial drugs is increasing on the Thai-Myanmar border

(EurekAlert) Early diagnosis and treatment with antimalarial drugs (ACTs—artemisinin based combination treatments) has been linked to a reduction in malaria in the migrant population living on the Thai-Myanmar border, despite evidence of increasing resistance to ACTs in this location, according to a study by international researchers published in this week’s PLOS Medicine.