By Simeon Bennett - Jun 21, 2012 2:00 PM ET Five genetic tweaks made a deadly strain of bird flu that can infect humans spread more easily, according to a study that the U.S. government had first sought to censor on concerns it could be used by bioterrorists.
The genetic changes made the H5N1 virus airborne among ferrets, the mammals whose response to flu is most like that of humans, researchers from the Netherlands wrote in the journalScience today. The likelihood of those changes occurring naturally is difficult to estimate but there is “no fundamental hurdle to that happening,” said Derek Smith, a University of Cambridge researcher who led a second study.
“We now know that we’re living on a fault line,” Smith said on a conference call with reporters yesterday. “It’s an active fault line, it really could do something, and now what we need to know is, how likely is that?”
Publication of the paper was...http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-21/deadly-bird-flu-may-be-five-steps-from-pandemic-study-finds.html
The genetic changes made the H5N1 virus airborne among ferrets, the mammals whose response to flu is most like that of humans, researchers from the Netherlands wrote in the journalScience today. The likelihood of those changes occurring naturally is difficult to estimate but there is “no fundamental hurdle to that happening,” said Derek Smith, a University of Cambridge researcher who led a second study.
Government workers cull chickens at the Cheung Sha Wan wholesale market in Hong Kong. Photographer: Paul Hilton/Bloomberg
Publication of the paper was...http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-21/deadly-bird-flu-may-be-five-steps-from-pandemic-study-finds.html
