I've been keeping up with BSE (mad cow) and avian flu through reading a publication called Feedstuffs, which we get at my workplace. Sounds really riveting, right? But there are lots of really interesting and informative articles about epidemiology, or I guess epizoology. Last year an article about avian flu described the virus's spread by saying that it was "marching across the Asian steppes on the wings of migratory fowl". I had to share that sentence with my family. Today I ran across an article that stated that the virus appears to be burning out; there are few new cases, indicating that the containment measures are probably working; and here is the pertinent sentence: "The animal markets received some of their best news in months last week, and it came on the wings of wild birds...." At least it didn't march on them.