Faster Bird Flu Test

(Singapore) Good news! A new, faster test for bird flu has been invented.

From Ninemsn.com.au:

Scientists in Singapore say they have developed a test kit which can detect bird flu infections in poultry within four hours - a tool which could help health officials control the spread of the deadly virus.

In the absence of a vaccine, early identification of the virus is especially important, and current tests used by laboratories take two to three days and sometimes up to a week.

"The faster you are able to detect the H5N1 (virus), the earlier you can impose some kind of isolation procedure and the faster poultry can be culled to prevent the spread of the virus," Ren Ee Chee, a professor at the Genome Institute of Singapore who led the research team, said.

The virus - which has a death rate of about 50 per cent - has killed 65 people in four Asian nations since late 2003 and has forced the culling of millions of birds, destroying the livelihood of many impoverished farmers.

World Health Organization experts have warned that avian flu could become a human flu pandemic.