Gain-of-Function H5N1 virus reaches Australia
Aussie egg farm at Meredith in Victoria goes into lockdown over fears bird flu discovery is the strain causing mass poultry deaths around the world
Authorities urgently investigate the outbreak
Victorian egg farm placed into quarantine
Bird flu has been detected at an Australian egg farm, plunging it into lockdown amid fears it could be the strain causing mass poultry deaths across the world - and the possible cause of the next global pandemic.
Agriculture Victoria on Wednesday confirmed the presence of avian influenza after a number of poultry deaths at an egg farm near Meredith, about 40km north-west of Geelong.
The property has been placed into quarantine and Agriculture Victoria staff have arrived to support the business and investigate further.
Samples have been sent to the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness at Geelong to determine the strain of the disease, Agriculture Victoria said.
Avian influenza is a highly contagious viral infection which can cause severe symptoms and sudden death in domestic poultry, wiping out entire populations.
A deadly strain, HPAI clade 2.3.4.4b, has been spreading globally, causing widespread outbreaks in bird populations and extensive deaths.
It has not yet been detected in Australia, the Department of Agriculture said.
The virus has also spread to mammals, including humans.
Infected people have observed mild symptoms or have been asymptomatic but some have experienced severe illness.
Bird flu could cause the next pandemic in humans, the US Centers for Disease Control has warned, as the H5N1 strain spreading on farms continued to mutate.
In a report published earlier this month, the agency said avian flu viruses 'have pandemic potential' in a section about rolling out vaccines if there is a human spillover.
I think the headline is premature
WHO Orders ‘Worldwide Lockdowns’ As Australia Reports First Human Bird Flu Case
The World Health Organization (WHO) has ordered government’s to prepare to initiate harsh new lockdowns after Australia reported its first human case of Bird Flu on Wednesday.
According to reports, authorities in Australia claim a child was infected with avian influenza in India and brought the disease to Australia.
“This is the first confirmed human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Australia,” Dr Claire Looker, the state’s chief health office declared in a statement.
Reuters.com reports: It was the first instance of detection of the H5N1 strain in a person or animal in the country, she added.
“The child experienced a severe infection but is no longer unwell and has made a full recovery.”
The case in Victoria involves an H5N1 virus, but the strain is not the same as those responsible for outbreaks in the United States, Looker said.
A farm worker in Texas tested positive for the virus earlier this year as it spread through the U.S. cattle herd.
Australia is the only continent where animals have so far stayed free of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, but authorities on Wednesday said a different strain of highly pathogenic bird flu had been detected at an egg farm near Melbourne.
First laboratory tests showed that virus was an as yet unidentified H7 strain that probably came from the wild bird population and had been seen in Australia before, said Graeme Cooke, Victoria’s chief veterinary officer.
Curbs were imposed on movement around the farm and the birds would be destroyed, he added.
“This area does have a high density of poultry businesses, both egg laying and poultry meat,” Cooke told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.
“At this stage we can’t say whether there’ll be any onward spread to other properties. We are now taking measures necessary to stamp it out to remove any onward spread.”
The outbreak presented no risk to human health, he said.
Only a small part of the industry has been affected, said Rowan McMonnies, chief executive of industry body Australian Eggs, adding that farmers would be “working hard to ensure there are eggs on shelves”.
Chicken producer Inghams Group (ING.AX), plunged as much as 16% but pared losses to 5.5% by 0701 GMT after it said operations had not been affected.
The Australian Chicken Meat Federation (ACMF) said companies had stepped up biosafety measures as a precaution but added, “No discernible impact is expected on chicken meat supplies at the retail level.”
In 2020, Victoria was the site of an H7N7 outbreak, the most recent of Australia’s nine outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) since 1976. All were quickly reined in and stamped out, the government says.
Ex-CDC Director Warns Gain-of-Function Research on Bird Flu Could Spark ‘Great Pandemic’
Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has issued a grim warning about the dangers of gain-of-function research, predicting that scientists tinkering with making the bird flu virus more infectious is what will trigger the next “great pandemic.”
By Dr Frank Yap, M.D. - May 21, 2024
Dr. Redfield, who in the past railed against the use of U.S. tax dollars to fund gain-of-function research at the Chinese virus lab at the heart of the COVID-19 origin controversy, is once again sounding the alarm on the dangers of risky scientific experiments going badly awry.
In a recent interview on NewsNation (below), Dr. Redfield recalled a recent op-ed he wrote in The Wall Street Journal calling for a moratorium on gain-of-function research, which involves altering the properties of a pathogen, such as its virulence, in order to study its potential impact on human health.
Proponents of such research argue it can help scientists better learn how the virus behaves and spreads, and so come up with counter-measures more effectively. Opponents say the potential benefits are outweighed by the risks such research poses as it makes viruses more lethal.
“I don’t think that research should be done,” Dr. Redfield told NewsNation. “That’s the real threat. That’s the real biosecurity threat, that these university labs are doing these bio-experiments that are intentionally modifying viruses—and I think bird flu I think is going to be the cause of a great pandemic—where they are teaching these viruses how to be more infectious for humans.”
Dr. Redfield’s remarks come amid a multi-state outbreak of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus, commonly known as the bird flu, in dairy cows. The virus has been detected in 42 dairy cattle herds across nine states as of May 13, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Only one case of human infection with the virus has been reported.
Bird Flu Gain-of-Function Research?
While Dr. Redfield said that there’s a “pretty heavy” species barrier (consisting of a five-amino-acid change) for the virus to overcome through natural mutations to become infectious to humans, he said that barrier could easily be erased by human meddling.
“In the laboratory, I could make it highly infectious for humans in months,” he said, while urging his colleagues in the scientific community not to tempt fate and to reject gain-of-function research on the bird flu virus.
Dr. Redfield’s warning comes just weeks after cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough’s colleagues alleged in a post on the Courageous Discourse blog that the USDA has been collaborating with the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2021 on research that includes “serial passage” of the bird flu virus through mallard ducks.
“Serial passage is considered gain-of-function research as it mimics a natural zoonotic jump in an accelerated fashion, leading to enhanced transmissibility among different species,” wrote John Leake and Nicolas Hulscher. “This method has a history of artificially introducing novel pathogens into the wild.”
Mr. Leake and Mr. Hulscher said that the bulk of the USDA’s research on avian flu viruses is being conducted at the U.S. National Poultry Research Center, Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) facility in Athens, Georgia.
One ongoing research project on the bird flu virus that involves collaboration between the USDA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences entails the carrying out “in vivo challenge work” at the SEPRL facility, which involves the introduction of the bird flu virus into a living organism—typically animal—to observe its behavior, immune responses triggered by the virus, and replication dynamics and pathogenicity.
Mr. Leake and Mr. Hulscher alleged that several months after the start of “this gain-of-function attempt” in 2021, a new H5N1 virus (clade 2.3.4.4b) appeared in wild birds in the United States, leading to the current outbreaks.
While a number of researchers propose that the current H5N1 viruses were brought to North America by wild migratory birds from Asia, Mr. Leake and Mr. Hulscher said this is “questionable” and urge investigation into whether there may have been a leak at the SEPRL facility.
“Urgent investigation is required to ensure there were no lab leaks at the SEPRL facility in Athens, Georgia, or any other facility that could lead to the escape of lab-modified strains of H5N1 bird flu,” they wrote.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the USDA with a request for comment on Dr. Redfield’s warning, on the claims made in the Courageous Discourse article, and on whether the USDA considers the SEPRL studies on bird flu viruses gain-of-function research.
Gain-Of-Function and COVID-19
The question of whether U.S. tax dollars were used to fund gain-of-function research in China on coronaviruses has been in the spotlight for some time and remains steeped in controversy, in part because the definition of what exactly constitutes such research is a matter of some debate.
Dr. Redfield has insisted that taxpayers ended up unknowingly funding risky gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the Chinese lab at the center of the lab-leak origin theory of the virus that caused COVID-19.
He made the remark while responding to questions during a March 8, 2023, session of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
“I think there’s no doubt that NIH was funding gain-of-function research,” Dr. Redfield told Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), who then asked the former CDC official, “Is it likely that American tax dollars funded the gain-of-function research that created this virus?” referring to the hypothesis that the pathogen behind COVID-19 leaked from a lab in Wuhan.
He replied in the affirmative, adding that he believes funding came from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies.
This has been disputed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), as well as by former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, and others.
“The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Dr. Fauci said at a Senate hearing on May 11, 2021.
Dr. Collins said in a statement on May 19, 2023, that “neither NIH nor NIAID have ever approved any grant that would have supported ‘gain-of-function’ research on coronaviruses that would have increased their transmissibility or lethality for humans.”
In his testimony on Capitol Hill, Dr. Redfield said that the COVID-19 pandemic presented a “case study” on the potential dangers of gain-of-function research and called for such work to be halted.
“While many believe that gain-of-function research is critical to get ahead of viruses by developing vaccines, in this case, I believe it was the exact opposite, unleashing a new virus on the world without any means of stopping it and resulting in the deaths of millions of people,” he said.
“Because of this, it is my opinion that we should call for a moratorium on gain-of-function research until we have a broader debate and we come to a consensus as a community about the value of gain-of-function research,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing for a scenario in which the bird flu starts to spread among humans.
Reposted from: https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/ex-cdc-director-warns-gain-of-function-research-on-bird-flu-could-spark-great-pandemic-5649152
Be Prepared
Comprehensivepreventionandtreatment protocolscan be downloaded from the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance's (FLCCC) website, covid19criticalcare.com. They also have atreatment protocol for RSV and influenza. Print them out and make sure you have the basic supplements in your medicine cabinet.
U.S. Government is Funding Gain-of-Function Research in China to Make Bird Flu More Infectious
The U.S government is again funding gain-of-function (GoF) research with Chinese scientists to make a dangerous virus even more potent. This time it is with birds not bats. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave $1 million to fund risky research on bird flu viruses to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China; the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athena, Georgia and the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute in Scotland.1
The plan is to infect ducks and geese with various strains of bird flu to render the virus more infectious and transmissible as scientists study the virus’s ability, “to jump into mammalian hosts.”
Documents outlining the research, which began in 2021 and will continue until 2026, were obtained by the White Coat Waste Project. The White Coat Waste Project is a nonprofit “bipartisan taxpayer watchdog organization” with a mission to “unite animal-lovers and liberty-lovers to find, expose and defund wasteful and cruel taxpayer-funded animal experimentation.”2
Bird Flu Research Tied to Wuhan Institute of Virology
It is worth noting that one of the research partners, the Roslin Institute, is connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) whose research is believed to have started the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. One of the researchers on the project, Wenju Liu, is affiliated with the WIV along with the “bat lady” herself, Zheng-Li Shi, well known for her long-time work on bat corona viruses.3
The research is focusing on three strains of bird flu, H5NX, H7N9 and H9N2, all three of which are capable of infecting animals and humans. H5NX is considered, “highly pathogenic” and can lead to neurological problems while H7N9 has caused severe illness in humans in the past.4
The experimental GoF research will use chickens, quails, geese and duck to predict the virus evolution in natural hosts and study their “potential to jump into mammalian hosts”.