Avian flu in East Asia

[Tom]

Avian influenza, also known as "bird flu," is a contagious animal
disease that normally infects birds and sometimes pigs. Researchers
believe the virus can infect all bird species, but domesticated poultry
are particularly vulnerable to epidemic level infections.
Recent reports have traced infections through flocks of migrating wild
geese in China, which has raised concerns that the virus could spread
beyond its Asian stronghold. Previously, the flu was only seen to move
to wild birds from domestic poultry flocks.

The disease was first seen in humans in 1997 in Hong Kong. Almost all
human cases are thought to have been contracted from birds. So far, the
impact on people has been limited to 57 deaths out of 112 infections in
Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia -- again, after contact with
domesticated chickens and other infected food birds.