Bird Flu — And What You Should Know About It
In the next several weeks, researchers will return to studying a deadly flu virus.
Research into the deadly bird flu virus that was halted in January 2011. It will likely resume within the next few weeks, according to a health report by The New York Times. Plans to continue experiments with the virus are in place now that countries have adopted new rules to ensure safety. Research was suspended after two labs in the Netherlands and the U.S. reported they had created easier-to-spread versions of bird flu. By genetically manipulating the virus, researchers created a strain that became airborne and spread between ferrets. According to WebMD, ferrets are commonly used in studies on human flu viruses, because almost all of the viruses spread easily among the animals. Concerns were that terrorists might use the research …
