Bird Flu Defies Control Efforts - Los Angeles Times

Bird Flu Defies Control Efforts - Los Angeles Times: "The culling of flocks has failed to slow the rapid spread of the virus, due in North America this year. Vaccination of poultry is under study.
By Jia-Rui Chong, Times Staff Writer
March 27, 2006

The spread of avian influenza to at least 29 new countries in the last seven weeks — one of the biggest outbreaks of the virus since it emerged nine years ago — is prompting a sobering reassessment of the strategy that has guided efforts to contain the disease.

Since February, the virus has cut a wide swath across the globe, felling tens of thousands of birds in Nigeria, Israel, India, Sweden and elsewhere. Health officials in the United States say bird flu is likely to arrive in North America this year, carried by wild birds migrating thousands of miles to their summer breeding grounds.

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The speed of its migration, and the vast area it has infected, has forced scientists to concede there is little that can be done to stop its spread across the globe.
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