Beyond Bird Flu And Mad Cow (CBS News) Diseases spread by birds, mosquitoes, cattle, and other animals are a growing problem for humans ? affecting millions of people a year, according to a new study. [News Source]

Imports halted from U.S. meat factory. The Japanese government on Wednesday suspended beef imports from a U.S. meat processing factory after finding a cattle part that had not been approved for shipment. [News Source]

Cheap Food Nation (Sierra Club) {Editor's Note} What's for dinner? Few questions are as environmentally fraught. Bad choices can lead to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease for us, and pollution, loss of biodiversity, and climate change for our favorite planet. [News Source]

Earnings Preview: Tyson Foods (AP via Yahoo! Finance) Tyson Foods Inc. reports earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter on Monday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period. [News Source]

BSE likely came from feed (Iowa Farmer) OTTAWA (AP) -- An Alberta, Canada, dairy cow that was diagnosed last month with BSE (mad-cow disease) probably contracted the disease from contaminated feed, federal regulators said. [News Source]

Fresh ammo to kill rogue prions (New Scientist) A compound with an "unprecedented" ability to destroy the malformed prions is a ray of hope in the battle against diseases such as vCJD [News Source]

USDA Says Some Headway Made With S Korea On Beef Trade (CattleNetwork.com) WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. has made some headway in improving conditions for U.S. meat producers to export to South Korea, but a remaining difference on bone fragments will force another bilateral meeting, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture statement issued Thursday. [News Source]

Rex Holdings to go private through management buyout scheme (Kyodo via Yahoo! Asia News) _ Rex Holdings Co., which owns a barbecue-beef restaurant chain as well as convenience store chain am/pm Japan Co., said Friday the firm listed on the Jasdaq over-the-counter stock market plans to go private through a buyout by its management. [News Source]

Japan halts beef imports from packer after suspect shipment (Casper Star-Tribune) TOKYO -- Japan said Wednesday it has halted beef imports from one U.S. meatpacking plant after finding a shipment with improper documentation, a development that may test the public's concern about the safety of American beef imports. [News Source]

Google a Diagnosis: Search Engine May Help With Difficult Cases (Bloomberg.com) Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc.'s search engine guided doctors to the correct diagnosis of symptoms more than half the time, suggesting the Internet tool may help crack complicated cases, Australian researchers wrote in a medical journal. [News Source]