AP - Scientists have a new test that can tell within four hours if a bird is possibly infected with bird flu — but it still will take about a week to know if that suspect case is truly sick with the deadly Asian strain, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Tuesday.

Reuters - Horrified by reports from Asia of chickens being set on fire or buried alive in plastic bags, U.S. animal welfare groups are gearing up with trepidation for the arrival of bird flu and the probability of mass killings to contain it.

AP - The chicken coops in Indonesia's earthquake-flattened Pentong village are filled with salvaged TVs, cooking utensils, refrigerators — and scores of people. Aid workers fear they could also contain bird flu.

AP - When 10-year-old Toni lay sick with a fever last week, his father Suryoto went to a local shop and bought the same cough syrup and flu medicine that had always worked before. But this time was different: The fever refused to break and only burned hotter.

AP - A World Health Organization laboratory has confirmed that bird flu killed a 15-year-old Indonesian boy who earlier tested positive to the H5N1 virus in a local lab, a health official said Sunday, bringing the country's toll to at least 37.

Reuters - Just $286 million has been spent to fight bird flu out of nearly $1.9 billion pledged last January by nations and organizations that said they wanted to make a "massive effort" against the virus, according to a World Bank report.

The EU reimposes a ban on all poultry imported from Romania, due to the rapid spread of bird flu.

AP - Local tests showed an 8-year-old girl has died of bird flu, a health official said Friday, the latest case in a spike putting Indonesia on pace to become the world's hardest-hit country.

AFP - A seven-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy who died this week in Indonesia were infected with bird flu, a health ministry official has said, citing results from local tests.

AP - The U.N. food agency said Thursday it is considering a plan to fit wild birds with tiny backpacks and monitor their annual migrations to help combat the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu.

Reuters - Animal welfare groups are using the expected arrival of bird flu in the United States to step up long-running campaigns against large chicken and egg factory farms and persuade more Americans to stop eating meat.

AP - The U.N. food agency said Thursday it is considering a plan to fit wild birds with tiny backpacks and monitor their annual migrations to help combat the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu.

AP - Indonesia averaged one human bird flu death every 2 1/2 days in May, putting it on pace to soon surpass Vietnam as the world's hardest-hit country.

AFP - More than 50 people who may have come into contact with an Indonesian family decimated by bird flu have been placed in voluntary quarantine, the World Health Organisation said.

China, Indonesia and Africa are under-reporting bird flu, says the World Organisation for Animal Health.

The role of swans and other wild birds in spreading bird flu is still unclear and uncertain, according to scientists.

AP - Bird flu killed a 15-year-old boy in Indonesia, a health official said Wednesday citing local tests, as the country struggled to get a grip on a recent spike in cases.

Reuters - Poultry experts are turning to sophisticated computer imaging to help them prepare for the expected arrival of the deadly bird flu virus in the United States later this year.

Reuters - The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a step-by-step plan on Tuesday, including the rapid mass use of the antiviral Tamiflu, for containing a bird flu outbreak if the virus starts to spread rapidly among humans.

AP - Three years after the first outbreaks of bird flu in Asia, experts are still puzzling at how the disease spread across three continents so quickly and how wild birds have helped disseminate the deadly virus.