‘Bird flu’ research that feds deemed a national security risk is published

Research on avian flu that federal officials once blocked for publication as a national security risk has now seen the light of day.

The news brings an end to a global debate over the study, which some said provides bioterrorists with details to create a pandemic using the H5N1 virus. 

Scientists with the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that just a few genetic changes to the virus could make bird flu potentially contagious in humans. 

The study was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. 

{mosads}It is one of two papers describing experiments with bird flu that federal advisers asked the scientific community not to publish last December because they posed security risks. 

Lawmakers also voiced concerns, in part because the research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

“When the American people pay for scientific research intended for the common good, they have a right to expect that their money will not be used to facilitate terrorism,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in committee April 26.

Others disagreed, arguing the information should be public for better flu surveillance.

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) later reversed its decision in March after receiving “additional information” that clarified its understanding of the studies.

Neither provides explicit instructions on how to engineer the H5N1 strain, for example.

The virus has killed millions of poultry and 355 humans since it emerged in Asia in 1997.

There have been 602 human cases discovered overall, and the high incidence of death in the infected has made officials wary of potential mutations that could more easily spread the virus.

The second study, by Dutch scientist Ron Fouchier, will appear in the journal Science.