Bryce Richter / UW-Madison
UW-Madison virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka leads a lab tour last year explaining avian flu research at the facility. Kawaoka led an international team of researchers at the lab in creating a life-threatening virus nearly identical to the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic that killed 50 million people worldwide.
An international team of researchers led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist created a life-threatening virus in a high-containment lab in Madison nearly identical to the 1918 "Spanish flu" pandemic that killed a staggering 50 million people worldwide, according to an article published Wednesday in a major science journal.
The controversial research, intended to show that bird flu viruses currently circulating in nature have the same potential for pandemic, is drawing sharp criticism around the world as highly risky.
The new virus created through reverse genetics methods was more deadly in mice and ferrets than an ordinary bird flu virus, but not as deadly as the 1918 virus — one of recorded history's most devastating outbreaks of disease, according to the scientists.
The resulting virus did not transmit in ferrets via respiratory droplets from sneezing or coughing, which is the primary mode of flu transmission among humans, the scientists reported.
The research published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe shows "there are gene pools in nature that have the potential to cause a severe pandemic in the future," said UW-Madison's Yoshihiro Kawaoka, senior author of the report and an internationally recognized authority on avian flu.
The transmission studies were conducted under specially designed high-containment conditions with commensurate biosafety practices at a UW-Madison facility, and were approved by the university's Institutional Biosafety Committee, university officials said.
Knowing what genes to look for in circulating viruses can help predict the likelihood of an emerging strain of pandemic flu and help scientists devise strategies for countering such a pathogen, according to Kawaoka.
"With each study, we learn more about the key features that enable an avian influenza virus to adapt to mammals and become transmissible," Kawaoka said in prepared remarks. "Eventually, we hope to be able to reliably identify viruses with significant pandemic potential so we can focus preparedness efforts appropriately."
Avian flu research has been intensely scrutinized in recent years, and has drawn criticism from around the world about the potential danger of creating viruses that could either accidentally escape labs or be recreated by terrorists.
The new research is every bit as controversial.
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