Two avian influenza A (H5N1) virionsWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CYNTHIA GOLDSMITH/JACKIE KATZ
After more than 6 months of heated discussion, the second group that succeeded in making the H5N1 avian flu transmissible between ferrets, considered a good model for human transmission, has published its results. The paper, which came out today (June 21) in Science, demonstrates that only five mutations are needed to confer this aerosol transmissibility among mammals, and that re-assortment between different types of viruses—a technique used by the other group, which published its results last month in Nature—is not necessary.
“Five mutations are not very many—fewer than previously estimated,” said Eddie Holmes, who studies virus evolution at Pennsylvania State University but was not involved with the research. The two papers together are the first “really good experimental data” addressing the question of how little ...
