Scientists mutate bird flu to make it MORE contagious...

Scientists mutate bird flu to make it MORE contagious- but critics claim the 'bioweapon' must be kept secret
By Rob Waugh
Last updated at 6:01 PM on 18th November 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2063326/Scientists-mutate-bird-flu-make-MORE-contagious--critics-claim-bioweapon-kept-secret.html#ixzz1e71gGwZM

The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed 500 people - and outbreaks sparked terror around the world about the possibility of a global pandemic.

So far, the virus has not been contagious enough to pose a threat of a global pandemic. Sick people don't pass it readily to the healthy.

But that might change.

At a flu conference in Malta this September, virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands made an astounding, and terrifying, announcement.

He found that a few simple genetic tweaks to the virus made it far more infectious among ferrets - a standard animal model used to study how viruses spread among humans.

Continue - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2063326/Scientists-mutate-bird-flu-make-MORE-contagious--critics-claim-bioweapon-kept-secret.html#ixzz1e71tJ3yn