When word got out that two virologists had engineered avian flu so it could spread among ferrets, the reaction was swift and savage. The New York Times called the germs "doomsday" weapons and predicted that "tens or hundreds of millions of people could get killed." Many scientists voiced fears that the mutant virus could cause a deadly pandemic if it escaped—or, even if it remained controlled, that this work could show terrorists how to breed bioweapons.
The researchers who created the viruses, Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical College in Rotterdam, both mutated an existing influenza strain so it could attach to cells in mammalian upper airways. Kawaoka modified the H1N1 flu virus with a gene from the H5N1 bird flu virus, which caused a major human outbreak in 2009. He infected ferrets with the hybrid virus, which then acquired two additional mutations. ...
