Vital bird flu research can resume scientists say

A year after bird flu scientists agreed to stop research into how only a few mutations in a deadly H5N1 virus could enable it to spread among mammals, they announced Wednesday that research should resume because it's vital to preparing for a possible pandemic, should such a virus emerge in nature and threaten humans.

The lab research won't resume, though, in the United States - including at the University of Wisconsin-Madison - until the government and the National Institutes of Health, which finances the research, set biosafety and biosecurity requirements for H5N1 virus transmission research to continue.