Amid Current Bird Flu Outbreak, UW Virologist Says Some Research Is Stalled

The current outbreak of bird flu is a different strain from the one that caused an uproar in the scientific community in 2012, but a University of Wisconsin researcher at the center of a debate over biosecurity said it underscores the need for more experiments that some critics consider risky.

In 2012, UW-Madison virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, along with a Dutch researcher, temporarily suspended their separate experiments on the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus. Critics were concerned the virus would get loose or be misused.

Kawaoka said that researchers have important decisions ahead.

“So, we have a choice. Either not do any work (in the lab) and see what happens in nature — whether we see (an) outbreak — or whether we study and be prepared,” he said.

Kawaoka’s work on how avian flu could possibly be transmitted to humans is still stalled as new federal guidelines are created on how to fund high-level biosecurity research.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture say the current flu outbreak affecting the nation’s poultry industry, which is linked to a strain called H5N2, doesn’t present a risk to public health or the food supply.