New bird found in eastern Nepal

KATHMANDU, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Ornithologists have
found yet another species of bird in Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve area in
Sunsari district in eastern Nepal, local media reported on Friday.

According to myrepublica.com, the new bird has been
identified as Daurian Redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus).

According to a press statement issued by Bird
Conservation Nepal, two ornithologists found the bird for the first time in the
country in one of the islands of Koshi River on Dec. 25, 2008.

Since then the ornithologists have seen this bird at
least three times again. They have recorded around 750 bird species in the
country -- more than any other ornithologists' total for this country -- so far.

The bird forms part of a large bird family known as
Muscicapidae. This species is known to be found in India, China, Myanmar,
Russia, Japan and few South East Asian countries during winter.

Experts believe that this species may be a migratory
species to Nepal. The habitat of the bird may not have been surveyed properly in
the past. Further surveys are recommended in the area. With this find, Nepal now
has 864 species of birds.

The bird is believed to be a regular winter visitor
to eastern Nepal, said the report.

Rare bird flies back from the dead

BEIJING,May 9-- The future of a rare species of bird that was once thought to be extinct got a huge lift this month when a chick was born at a zoo in south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Without feathers and barely able to walk, the 30-gram pink bird, a white-eared night-heron, is eating four small fish every one and a half hours and making great progress since it broke out of its shell on May 3 at Nanning Zoo, Nanning Evening News reported on Friday.

The bird was hatched in an incubator and is being fed artificially but is 100 per cent real - one of only a handful of the species on the planet.

The bird should be strong enough to walk in 20 days and ready to meet the public three months later.

It is the offspring of two herons that were found in 2003, along with a third that subsequently died, by local people, who sent them to the zoo. The parents laid two eggs last April, which they broke accidentally, and two more on April 4, that they abandoned in the nest. Those eggs were put in an incubator and one hatched.

White-eared night herons, or Gorsachius magnificus, are one of the most endangered species of birds in the world.

They were thought to be extinct until some were found in mountainous areas of Zhejiang, Fujian and Hainan provinces in the 1920s.

(Source: China Daily)

Scientists modifies smallpox vaccine to fight H5N1 bird flu

HONG KONG, March 1 (Xinhua) -- A team of scientists
from the University of Hong Kong and the United States on Sunday said they have
developed a new vaccine strategy against the H5N1 bird flu virus by genetically
modifying a smallpox vaccine.

The new vaccine is potentially a sound solution in
case of an H5N1 bird flu pandemic, which many scientists have been worried
about, said Malik Peiris, a microbiologist and bird flu research authority at
the University of Hong Kong.

Peiris said that the new vaccine has proven safer in
experiments on mice and that "a single vaccine dose will provide rapid
protective immune responses."

It is also expected to enable fast mass production
thanks to the possibility of using cell-culture methods, which could help avoid
potential production bottlenecks as eggs will have to be used in the production
of vaccines currently on offer.

And the existing facilities used for the production
of smallpox vaccines can be used to produce the bird flu vaccines without much
trouble, which can help reduce the costs, said another member of the research
team, adding that alternative strategies available involving genetic engineering
methods have been typically expensive.

The highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus has
infected hundreds of people around the globe over the past decade, with the
death rate standing at round 60 percent.

There had been no confirmed cases of the virus
spreading from human to human but scientists fear that a genetic mutation might
enable it to jump from human to human someday, thereby leading to a global
pandemic that could kill millions.

Many scientists have been working on the development
of effective vaccines to prevent such a bird flu outbreak and the University of
Hong Kong was among the leaders.

There are now vaccines for sale in the United States
and eggs were essential in manufacturing the vaccines, which might lead to
bottlenecks as eggs may not be readily available in large amount in the case of
a bird flu pandemic.

Peiris said his team planned to optimize the efficacy
of the new vaccine.

They will explore the new strategy to create a
"universal influenza vaccine" that can fight a range of subtypes of the H5
strain of bird flu virus.

The study, co-authored by scientists from the U.S.
National Institutes of Health, is published on the March issue of the Journal of
Immunology.