Bird flu studies to resume shortly

'Research on the bird flu may start up again on the University of Wisconsin campus after scientists voluntarily put the project on hold more than a year ago."

“People questioned what was the benefit of this type of research,” Moritz said. “The benefit is global public health.”

Moritz said both Kawaoka and the Dutch scientists used ferrets in their research because ferrets are the best model to study the flu in humans. She said ferrets have respiratory tracks that are similar to a human’s, and ferrets also cough and sneeze like humans.

She said Kawaoka found four mutations that allowed a strain of bird flu to transmit through aerosol droplets from one ferret to another. She said bird flu was not able to do this before."


http://badgerherald.com/news/2013/02/27/bird_flu_studies_to_.php#.UTAmvo6D5M1