Scientists to resume high-risk bird flu studies

International scientists announced Wednesday that they will resume research on the deadly H5N1 bird flu after security fears prompted a yearlong moratorium.

Research will proceed in several countries but not in the United States, which is still weighing measures to ensure the virus is safely guarded.

The efforts halted in January 2012 after scientists at the University of Wisconsin and the Dutch Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, created strains of the virus that could, in theory, pass between humans. 

The breakthrough raised concerns among health and security experts who warned it could prompt a pandemic, or ease a terrorist attack.

On Wednesday, 40 flu researchers from Europe, Asia and the United States published an open letter defending their decision to resume the studies.

"Because H5N1 virus-transmission studies are essential for pandemic preparedness and understanding the adaptation of influenza viruses to mammals, research who have approval from their governments and institutions … have a public-health responsibility to resume this important work," the scientists wrote.

"We fully acknowledge that this research … is not without risk," they continued. "However, because the risk exists in nature that an H5N1 virus capable of transmission in mammals may emerge, the benefits of this work outweigh the risks."

The letter was published in the journals Science and Nature.

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