The Government of Canada launched a national awareness campaign focused on key farm management practices that will help keep animals healthy and safeguard the Canadian food supply. The announcement was made today by Larry Miller, MP for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound and Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

Leading UK research funders have announced£7.5 million of funding for a series of projects aimed at understanding the development and spread of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009-or 'swine flu'. The research will look at every aspect of the virus, on pig farms, in pig and human populations, and in hospital intensive care units. The first cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 were reported in Mexico in March this year.

Amarillo Biosciences, Inc. (ABI) (OTCBB: AMAR) reported that the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recently confirmed that a household cat in Iowa developed signs of respiratory infection caused by H1N1 influenza virus. The AVMA report adds cats to the growing list of animals, including ferrets, hogs (most recently in Indiana and Taiwan) and turkeys reported to be infected by H1N1 influenza virus.

Far from being a topic rooted only in science, how we protect animal welfare is affected by such diverse elements as politics, ethics and semantics, international speakers at a welfare symposium at Michigan State University said Monday.

Three more ferrets in Oregon have tested positive for the 2009 pandemic influenza H1N1 virus, state officials confirmed this afternoon, bringing the total number of cases affecting ferrets in the state to four. Dr. Emilio DeBess, the Oregon state public health veterinarian, says the ferrets that tested positive for the H1N1 virus are among a group of nine ferrets that live with a family in the Roseburg, Ore., area.

Zoo Atlanta recently became the first zoological institution in the world to obtain voluntary blood pressure readings from a gorilla. This groundbreaking stride was made possible by the Gorilla Tough Cuff, a blood pressure reading system devised through partnership with the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.