New Fatal Bird-Flu Virus Appears in Viet Nam. Poultry News New Fatal Bird-Flu Virus Appears in Viet Nam 12 September 2012 VIET NAM - A new highly-toxic avian flu virus, which can kill humans, is quickly spreading in northern and central Viet Nam, reported the National steering board for bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease prevention. The acting head of the Veterinary Agency, Mr Hoang Van Nam, said the new virus still belongs to the 2.3.2.1 virus branch but it is different from the 2.3.2.1 virus (both A and B groups,) which caused the avian flu epidemic in Viet Nam last year.
Mr Nam said that this virus can make the avian flu epidemic to spread widely in Viet Nam in the coming time. Seven provinces in Viet Nam currently have bird flu epidemics, with more than 180,000 poultry being culled. According to experts, the new virus type appeared in Viet Nam in July and quickly spread in the country’s northern and central regions in August. “Wherever Chinese disqualified chickens come, the new virus appears. ThePoultrySite News Desk. Hunting Practice Helps Spread Bird Flu.
Low-Cost Biosensor Detects Contaminated Water. September 7, 2012 April Flowers for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online For children under five years old, diarrheal disease is the second largest cause of death. This disease kills as many as 1.5 million children globally every year according to the World Health Organization (WHO). These horrifying statistics led a group of undergraduate students from Arizona State University to develop a low cost biosensor — a simple device that would detect contaminated water. The device design comes as part of the 2012 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition.
The nine-member ASU team started prepping for the synthetic biology competition this summer. “We are developing a biosensor that will detect pathogenic bacteria, such as Shigella, Salmonella, and E. coli, that cause diarrhea,” said Ryan Muller, an undergraduate student in ASU´s School of Life Sciences and an iGEM team leader. The team is working on two biosensor designs. Conut oil could combat tooth decay. 2 September 2012Last updated at 21:20 ET Coconut oil attacks the bacteria behind tooth decay and could be used in dental care products, according to research. Scientists found that coconut oil which had been treated with enzymes stopped the growth of Streptococcus bacteria - a major cause of tooth decay. Tooth decay affects 60% to 90% of children in industralised countries.
Speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's conference, the Irish researchers say that coconut oil also attacks the yeast which causes thrush. The research team from the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland tested the impact of coconut oil, vegetable oil and olive oil in their natural states and when treated with enzymes, in a process similar to digestion. The oils were then tested against Streptococcus bacteria which are common inhabitants of the mouth. Only the enzyme-modified coconut oil showed an ability to inhibit the growth of most strains of the bacteria. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote. Food Blog - Agriculture and Natural Resources Blogs. Possibly, people could be divided into the following two groups: those who knowingly eat insects, and those who think they have never eaten them.
Since I am still assailed by the odd nightmare in which I am bringing to my lips a well-cooked bug that suddenly springs to life, I decided to tackle my bug-food phobia by visiting entomologist Douglas Yanega of UC Riverside last week. Yanega has eaten insects, even relished them. With no difficulty whatsoever he has ingested honey bees, termites, mealworms, crickets, grasshoppers, ants, June beetles, silkworms and even scorpions.
“These admittedly were not very tasty,” said Yanega, who is the senior museum scientist in the Entomology Research Museum, where he studies, identifies and catalogs insects. “In Thailand, however, I had queen weaver ants — a gourmet food there that tastes like either peanut butter or lemon, depending on which body part you’ve sunk your teeth into — and deep-fried mole crickets. Chicago Is Filled With Rats After The Mild Winter. UC Davis study: Triclosan, a chemical used in hand sanitizer, antibacterial soap may hinder muscle function - Sacramento Business Journal. Battelle Wins $102M NIAID Biodefense Research Contract. England's 'natural capital' findings to be revealed | Environment.
The state of England's natural world and the sustainability of its society and the economy is due be published on Tuesday, tracking everything from bees, butterflies and birds to long-term unemployment, social mobility in adulthood, and knowledge and skills. The revised set of sustainable development indicators(SDIs) are designed to measure the health of the country beyond pure economic measurements such as GDP, and are published on the same day as the first annual results of David Cameron's "wellbeing index". The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which has been working on the new SDIs, said it will be the first time measures of "capital" will be included, that show how much is left rather than just how much is being used – for example, of declining fish stocks.
Spelman said of the new SDIs: "At Rio+20 we successfully argued for the need for countries to look beyond their economic performance as a measure of progress.