After listening all morning to the myriad manmade and natural risks facing the world in the 21st century, Michael Osterholm, an expert on public-health preparedness, offered a stark analysis of the threat of pandemic influenza.

"With weak surveillance and grinding poverty, Africa is being declared the new frontier in the fight against bird flu, but some of its states should be able to control the disease," a top animal health expert said.

The World Bank is preparing a $15 million grant for Indonesia as part of a broad donor effort fight avian flu more effectively in the country.

As public health officials around the world keep a nervous eye on the spread of avian influenza, the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) has uncovered a key step in how the influenza virus causes infection.