Study: Satellites can predict disease risk
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Satellites can give warnings ahead of outbreaks of deadly hantavirus by recording surges in vegetation that increase mouse populations, U.S. researchers say.
"It's a way to remotely track a disease without having to go out and trap animals all the time," said Denise Dearing, professor of biology at the University of Utah. "The satellite measures the greenness of the Earth, and we found that greenness predicts deer mouse population density."
While the study focused on hantavirus in deer mice, its findings could help health officials fight other rodent-borne diseases such as rat-bite fever, Lyme disease, bubonic plague, Lassa fever, salmonella infection and various hemorrhagic fevers, a University of Utah release said Tuesday.
The satellite method was tested on deer mice that proliferate when their food supply is abundant, "but it potentially could be applied to any animal that responds to vegetation," Dearing says. "It would have to be calibrated against each specific species of rodent and the disease, but it's really powerful when it's done."
"The point of this whole exercise is to develop disease-risk maps, which would show the distribution of infected hosts -- in this case, deer mice -- overlaid with human population density," says study co-author Thomas Cova, Utah associate professor of geology.
Europe to simplify patent system
BRUSSELS, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Europe's complex and expensive procedures for granting patents for inventions will be simplified under a new system approved by Euro lawmakers, officials said.
Under the plan, a uniform procedure for registering patents in Europe will be adopted by 25 of the European Union's 27 member states, the BBC reported Tuesday.
Currently, European patents can cost 10 times as much to procure as in the United States because of translation costs, the BBC said.
The new plan, which proposed using only English, French and German for translating patents, is being opposed by Italy and Spain.
Language disputes and the lack of unanimity have blocked efforts to simplify the patent system for a decade.
The European Parliament would launch the new patent system under the EU "enhanced co-operation" procedure, a fast-track mechanism that allows nine or more EU countries to proceed with a measure even if it has not been agreed to by all 27.
New patent legislation is a vital component in the EU's drive to make the single European market function better, officials said.
Emerging economies "are literally breathing down Europe's neck" and the new patents regimen "will be a big part of what is needed by our entrepreneurs," said Sajjad Karim, a member of the EU Parliament.
Automated lab to tackle flu outbreaks
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Feb. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say a new automated lab can analyze thousands of flu samples in days, offering health officials a fast picture of an emerging pandemic.
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico say the self-contained lab, in a 7-by-14 foot glass cubicle, can analyze flu samples at speeds far exceeding the capabilities of existing public health labs, the Albuquerque Journal reported Tuesday.
"When H1N1 [flu] broke out, most of the public health laboratories were just overwhelmed," LANL project manager Tracy Erkkila said.
The timeliness of the existing system "is not even close to what you need to make some public health decisions," he said.
LANL also built a second self-contained lab that can quickly map the complete DNA sequence of a flu virus, and in just four months the lab has sequenced an estimated 600 type-B flu strains, or about twice the number known previously, Erkkila said.
LANL says that a global network of the twin automated labs, the first screening thousands of samples to identify pathogens and the second performing a complete DNA analysis, would give health officials and vaccine manufacturers a quick way of identifying dangerous flu strains and potential pandemics.
Sweden, Finland clash over wolf plan
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- A plan by Sweden to restore its wolf population with pups imported from neighboring countries has met resistance from Finland, officials said.
Finland is reluctant to contribute any of its wolf pups to Sweden's proposal to import wolf pups to boost its domestic wolf population, Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra reported Tuesday.
Finland's reluctance is thought to be because its own wolf population is small, TT said.
"From the Finnish perspective, we think that one should not move the wolf pups at all, any year," Pentti Lahteenoja of the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said.
Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said decisions to add new wolves will be made locally.
"We're now taking a collective step in order to get viable wolves," Carlgren said.
The importation of pups would start in April, he said.
