A new way of spreading Christmas cheer (Pretoria News) New York - Manufacturers are hoping their range of cuddly toy versions of microbes including gonorrhea and syphilis will be a hit for Christmas. United States company Giant Microbes has turned microscopic images of viruses and bugs, which also include malaria and mad cow disease, into soft toys. [News Source]

A new way of spreading Christmas cheer (Pretoria News) New York - Manufacturers are hoping their range of cuddly toy versions of microbes including gonorrhea and syphilis will be a hit for Christmas. United States company Giant Microbes has turned microscopic images of viruses and bugs, which also include malaria and mad cow disease, into soft toys. [News Source]

A new way of spreading Christmas cheer (The Star) New York - Manufacturers are hoping their range of cuddly toy versions of microbes including gonorrhea and syphilis will be a hit for Christmas. United States company Giant Microbes has turned microscopic images of viruses and bugs, which also include malaria and mad cow disease, into soft toys. [News Source]

2 cooks in the stew for YouTube posting (AP via Yahoo! News) How many scoops of stewed beef can you pile onto a bowl of rice? Two video-savvy cooks who tried to find out could find themselves out of jobs after the Japanese beef bowl chain Yoshinoya D&C Co. suspended them for posting a clip of their experiment on YouTube. [News Source]

Doctors, Vets Discuss Animal-To-Human Diseases (NBC 10 Providence) PROVIDENCE - More than 200 physicians and veterinarians met in Providence on Tuesday to discuss common infections shared between animals and humans. The conference, called Pets, People and Pathogens, was on Zoonotic diseases. [News Source]

Scientists develop new tests that identify lethal prion strains quickly and accurately (PhysOrg) One of the new in vitro tests, called the Standard Scrapie Cell Assay, measures prion infectivity levels in a highly accurate and extremely rapid way, producing results in less than two weeks. The second test, called the Cell Panel Assay, allows researchers to quickly distinguish between several prion strains in various cells lines. Using the new assays, the scientists were able to show that ... [News Source]

Scripps scientists develop new tests that identify lethal prion strains quickly and accurately (EurekAlert!) One of the new in vitro tests, called the Standard Scrapie Cell Assay, measures prion infectivity levels in a highly accurate and extremely rapid way, producing results in less than two weeks. [News Source]

Health officials expand investigation at plant (Post-Bulletin) Workers who operated or stood near a machine that removes brain tissue from pig carcasses at Quality Pork Producers were the only ones who became sick at th [News Source]

Brain-removal workers fall ill at Minnesota pork plant. State health officials said Monday they were investigating neurological illnesses among 11 workers at a pork processing plant, but that there was no evidence that the public was at risk. [News Source]

State investigating illnesses among quality pork workers. State health officials are investigating neurological illnesses among 11 workers at Quality Pork Processing in Austin. [News Source]