Comments and research by UC Davis community members regularly appear in a wide variety of news media outlets. Among the recent citings…

Director of the Wildlife Health Center Walter Boyce and staff research associate Grace Lee were quoted in a Nov. 6 front-page New York Times article on detecting avian flu. The two researchers have been testing local magpies and other scavengers for signs of the disease. Boyce described the methods as "a bit of a maverick approach," but pointed out that scavenger birds could be vectors for moving the virus from wild ducks to domestic chicken farms. The Vermont Guardian quoted Boyce in an avian flu story on Nov. 4…

Warner Hudson of the medical center contributed to articles appearing in the Nov. 3 Los Angeles Times and Nov. 2 Sacramento Bee about President Bush's flu pandemic plan. Hudson, an infectious disease expert, was skeptical that the plan would work. "You have to have public health people available to identify the cases, put them on antivirals and track down their contacts," he said in the Times. "All those basics require a certain infrastructure that has to be able to click together like a race car.... It doesn't typically click together now."…

Ari Kelman, associate history professor, was quoted about New Orleans' unique culture in the Nov. 3 Christian Science Monitor. "What makes New Orleans different is the vernacular, the everyday," said Kelman, who's written a book on the city. "The fact that you can go into just about any diner in the city and have a meal that's better than some of the best food in the country. I'm not talking about an $80 dinner. I'm talking about an $8 lunch of shrimp etouffee or a crawfish po' boy. That's different."…

A paper co-authored by Giovanni Peri, assistant economics professor, was described in the Nov. 3 New York Times. Peri's study refuted the common assumption that immigrant workers bring down wages for native-born laborers. Peri pointed out that immigrants can sometimes create more jobs for natives with complementary skills, and that foreign-born and native-born workers aren't always competing over the same jobs. Immigrant workers could challenge the least-educated Americans, but Peri said most people in the labor force wouldn't have to worry. "I am talking about a negative effect for about 9 percent of the population and a positive effect for 91 percent of the population." …

Scott Fishman, medical school professor, contributed to a Nov. 4 Washington Post article on government regulation of pain medicines. Congress is considering renewing a provision that gives the Drug Enforcement Administration — not the Food and Drug Administration — control over narcotic medications. "This is another intrusion of law enforcement into the domain of health care," said Fishman, who is American Academy of Pain Medicine president. …

Research by nutritionist Peter Havel was cited in a Nov. 6 Houston Chronicle story about high-fructose corn syrup and obesity. Havel found that some hormones that regulate body weight do not respond to fructose the way they do to glucose, another type of sugar. "Fructose doesn't appear to signal the hormonal systems involved in the long-term regulation of food intake and energy metabolism." ...

Colin Carter, agricultural and resource economics professor, was quoted in a Nov. 7 Associated Press story about China's growing economy. Although farmers are hoping to sell new products to China as its people gain disposable income, Carter said some goods, especially dairy products, will not turn a profit. "I still think it's a niche market," he said. "The Asian palate is not conducive to dairy products in general."