Children's Health Defense A bird flu outbreak in a Wisconsin dairy cattle herd has fueled speculation that gain-of-function research at a nearby university lab — where scientists are working to develop a bird flu vaccine for cattle — may be behind the outbreak. The lab has a history of safety violations.
A bird flu outbreak in a Wisconsin dairy cattle herd has fueled speculation that gain-of-function research at a nearby university lab — where scientists are working to develop a bird flu vaccine for cattle — may have played a role in the outbreak.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) identified what it said was the first known case of highly pathogenic bird flu in a Dodge County, Wisconsin, dairy cattle herd.
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS) characterized the outbreak as a new “spillover” event — from wildlife to cattle.
The two scientists who conducted the whole genome sequencing for APHIS and identified the virus responsible for the Dodge County outbreak work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, the university confirmed.
Those same scientists — Keith Poulsen, DVM, Ph.D., and Yoshihiro Kawaoka, DVM, Ph.D. — have also co-authored studies on gain-of-function research, including studies related to the H5N1 virus.
One of the scientists, Kawaoka, directs the university’s Influenza Research Institute, known to conduct gain-of-function research on H5N1. Kawaoka was director of the high-security lab in 2019, when it came under scrutiny for a safety breach.
The institute’s lab is about 40 miles from the bird flu outbreak in Dodge County.
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