The season of sniffles will soon be upon us. And virologists, already on alert for the heightened threat of an influenza pandemic, must now contend with a significant new risk.

Scientists in Sweden have found that Tamiflu, the frontline drug for fighting a pandemic, survives unscathed as it passes through the human body. It could then be taken in by waterfowl, which are often found near sewage outlets and are potential incubators of avian flu virus. Repeated exposure to oseltamivir, the generic name for Tamiflu, could make those viruses resistant to it.

Tamiflu-resistant avian virus could then quite possibly infect a person already suffering from human flu. Rolling the dice again, the two viruses could combine to create a hybrid virus embodying the worst of all possible worlds: virulent, transmissible and resistant to the only therapy that can avert a catastrophe.

Dr Jerker Fick, from Umea University, cautions that countries should curtail their use of the drug to stop it becoming ineffective. Japan, in particular, needs to rethink; one in three flu patients there receives oseltamivir.

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Did you eat five portions of fruit and veg yesterday? No, potatoes don’t count. So you didn’t quite manage it? Thank goodness for that. Because if everyone in Britain ate as the Government wants, according to some scientists, rural Britain would disappear under a swath of polytunnels.

Researchers at Cornell University have studied how different diets among New Yorkers require differing amounts of land (so-called “food prints”). Although a low-fat vegetarian diet is the most efficient in terms of land used per person (less than half an acre per year), adding in some steak and Stilton – or meat and dairy components – makes the best use of all available land. That’s because vegetables, fruits and grains require top-grade land, while animals can be grazed in lower-quality fields.

Similar studies are under way in Britain: next month the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme, a national research effort funded by the research councils and Defra, is holding a meeting in London on the food chain. One challenge to be discussed is that – just as the rush to sustainable energy caused wind turbines to spring up on the landscape – so the desire to eat well may mean that our green and pleasant land is shrouded in plastic.

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With only two weeks to Hallowe’en, I’m worried about pumpkins. Summer downpours have prevented ripening, so I’ll have to rustle up my fallback: red grapes stuffed into lychees, which make cracking eyeballs. Americans are similarly spooked. Michigan’s fields were flooded and those pumpkins that survived were at risk of a fungus that causes them to rot from the inside out. The shell then falls apart. It sounds gross though, and quite possibly the perfect accessory for pint-sized ghouls.

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