unwise. Governments in the region face an endemic and recurrent problem that presents a serious threat to human health. Although other countries in the region have been affected, Hong Kong has remained remarkably free of H5N1 outbreaks in poultry in 2004, thanks to preventive measures implemented over the past few years (Sims et al., 2003).

Faecal droppings from apparently healthy poultry in live poultry markets in Hong Kong and in Guangdong, Hunan, and Yunnan provinces were sampled monthly for influenza virus isolation. Methods used for virus isolation and characterization have been previously described (Guan et al., 2000). In addition to systematic surveillance in the poultry markets, sick or dead poultry from markets and farms in Hong Kong were similarly studied. This analysis included representative H5N1 viruses isolated from birds in Vietnam (n = 8), Thailand (n = 7), and Indonesia (n = 6), and from humans in Vietnam (n = 4) and Thailand (n = 1) during the 2003–2004 H5N1 outbreak.

All sequences were edited with the Staden software package and aligned with ClustalX. Phylogenetic trees were generated using PAUP* version 4.0 (Swofford, 2001) and MEGA version 2.1 (Kumar et al., 2001). K_a/K_s analysis was conducted by the Pamilo–Bianchi–Li method as implemented in MEGA.

Chantanee Buranathai

Bureau of Disease Prevention Control and Veterinary Services

Department of Livestock Development

Thailand

Front Matter (R1-R18)

Summary and Assessment (1-56)

1 The Story of Influenza (57-114)

2 Today (115-140)

3 Toward Preparedness: Opportunities and Obstacles (141-221)

4 Strategies for Controlling Avian Influenza Birds and Mammals (222-253)

5 Emerging Technical Tools (254-314)

6 Beyond Biomedical Response (315-372)

Appendix A: Pandemic Influenza: Assessing Capabilities for Prevention and Response (373-380)

Appendix B: Selected Bibliography (381-387)

Appendix C: The Critical Path to New Medical Products (388-389)

Appendix D: Forum Members, Speakers, and Staff Biographies (390-412)