Posted on 03/12/2025 7:35:33 AM PDT by MtnClimber
This strain may have emerged from gain-of-function research conducted at two specific facilities: the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Georgia, and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Back in 2022, during the early days of the “bird flu” pandemic, I wondered if the H5N1 strain of bird flu was a gain-of-function creation.
The reason for it was two-fold. One was the high kill ratio. While a new virus might have a high infection fatality rate, 100% fatality would only likely be achieved if the virus genetics were rearranged to target a host species.
The second reason was that the Chinese were reportedly experimenting with the H5N1 strain. Since 2019, we have all enjoyed the novel coronavirus they generated in their Wuhan labs.
While I may have been right about the gain-of-function (GOF), I was wrong about the laboratory. It turns out this frankenvirus might be a joint American and Dutch creation.
And, as with China, poor biosafety practices may have been a contributing factor.
“Proximal Origin of Epidemic Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 Clade 2.3.4.4b and Spread by Migratory Waterfowl” by Nicolas Hulscher, co-authored with John Leake and Peter A. McCullough, investigates the potential laboratory origins of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype B3.13, which has been causing outbreaks in various animal species and sporadic human infections.
The paper was published in Poultry, Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences in November 2024. The study suggests that this strain may have emerged from gain-of-function research conducted at two specific facilities: the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Georgia, and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The authors start by looking at HPAI H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b [which is the initial strain that has morphed into the “bird flu” that I have been covering as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenze (HPAI) since 2022].
This original strain was first detected in the Netherlands in 2020, raising questions about its origins, particularly in light of prior gain-of-function experiments at these labs. It must be noted that the current pandemic cycle of H5N1 bird flu began in the fall of 2020 when a new strain emerged in Europe, so this timing aligns.
Genetic analysis links genotype B3.13 (another variant), which emerged in 2024, to genotype B1.2, detected in Georgia in January 2022. This new variant arose after serial passage experiments with H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4 began in mallard ducks at SEPRL in April 2021. The first North American bird flu cases began being reported in late 2021, and poultry farms were reporting cases in early 2022.
The new study notes that genotype B1.2 was also found in a bottlenose dolphin in Florida in March 2022, indicating rapid adaptation across species. The NP gene of genotype B3.13, implicated in cattle outbreaks, likely originated from an avian influenza virus in mallard ducks, and mutations in recent human cases (e.g., PB2 E627K and PB2 M631L) suggest a connection to these experiments.
H5N1 Bird Flu Strain Reported to be Another “Gain-of-Function” Virus This strain may have emerged from gain-of-function research conducted at two specific facilities: the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Georgia, and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Posted by Leslie Eastman Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 07:00am 43 Comments PrintFacebookTwitterTelegramLinkedInWhatsAppEmail
Back in 2022, during the early days of the “bird flu” pandemic, I wondered if the H5N1 strain of bird flu was a gain-of-function creation.
The reason for it was two-fold. One was the high kill ratio. While a new virus might have a high infection fatality rate, 100% fatality would only likely be achieved if the virus genetics were rearranged to target a host species.
The second reason was that the Chinese were reportedly experimenting with the H5N1 strain. Since 2019, we have all enjoyed the novel coronavirus they generated in their Wuhan labs.
While I may have been right about the gain-of-function (GOF), I was wrong about the laboratory. It turns out this frankenvirus might be a joint American and Dutch creation.
And, as with China, poor biosafety practices may have been a contributing factor.
“Proximal Origin of Epidemic Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 Clade 2.3.4.4b and Spread by Migratory Waterfowl” by Nicolas Hulscher, co-authored with John Leake and Peter A. McCullough, investigates the potential laboratory origins of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype B3.13, which has been causing outbreaks in various animal species and sporadic human infections.
The paper was published in Poultry, Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences in November 2024. The study suggests that this strain may have emerged from gain-of-function research conducted at two specific facilities: the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Georgia, and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The authors start by looking at HPAI H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b [which is the initial strain that has morphed into the “bird flu” that I have been covering as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenze (HPAI) since 2022].
This original strain was first detected in the Netherlands in 2020, raising questions about its origins, particularly in light of prior gain-of-function experiments at these labs. It must be noted that the current pandemic cycle of H5N1 bird flu began in the fall of 2020 when a new strain emerged in Europe, so this timing aligns.
Genetic analysis links genotype B3.13 (another variant), which emerged in 2024, to genotype B1.2, detected in Georgia in January 2022. This new variant arose after serial passage experiments with H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4 began in mallard ducks at SEPRL in April 2021. The first North American bird flu cases began being reported in late 2021, and poultry farms were reporting cases in early 2022.
The new study notes that genotype B1.2 was also found in a bottlenose dolphin in Florida in March 2022, indicating rapid adaptation across species. The NP gene of genotype B3.13, implicated in cattle outbreaks, likely originated from an avian influenza virus in mallard ducks, and mutations in recent human cases (e.g., PB2 E627K and PB2 M631L) suggest a connection to these experiments.
The paper argues that migratory waterfowl, particularly mallard ducks, may have facilitated the spread of this strain from laboratory leaks, given their role as natural reservoirs and their capacity to infect poultry and livestock globally.
Yes, our study concluded that the current H5N1 bird flu outbreak may have originated from the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory—and not a single U.S. government agency has challenged our findings. https://t.co/vbGwDJ7ZVR pic.twitter.com/TOhZA1jPqq
— Nicolas Hulscher, MPH (@NicHulscher) March 8, 2025
The paper also cites evidence of biosafety lapses at BSL-3 labs like SEPRL and Erasmus, including a 5% to 15% chance of undetected H5N1 lab escapes in Rotterdam, as estimated by prior research.
In January 2014, the CDC experienced an inadvertent crosscontamination incident where a Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza (LPAI) A (H9N2) virus culture was contaminated with a HPAI A (H5N1) virus. This contaminated culture was subsequently shipped to the SEPRL in Athens, Georgia, but the issue wasn’t identified until May 2014, meaning that unrecognized H5N1 contamination could have been occurred for months.
The contamination event revealed gaps in laboratory safety protocols and reporting mechanisms, underscoring the risk of H5N1 escape even within high-containment facilities such as SEPRL.
…These incidents underscore critical lapses in laboratory safety and oversight that can occur at BSL-3 laboratories such as the SEPRL and the Erasmus Medical Center, highlighting the significant risks associated with GOF research.
However, it’s important to note that the origins of this pandemic remain a subject of investigation. So, I will remain vigilant about new findings and reporting what I find.
But, given the evidence and track record here, it is clear that a hard-stop should be put to all gain-of-function research.
I will conclude with the full ethics lecture offered in “Jurassic Park” by character Ian Malcom:
Gee, the lack of humility before nature that’s being displayed here, uh… staggers me.
I’ll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you’re using here, it didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now [bangs on the table]
..Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.
DUuuuuuuuuuH!
I read about wild birds found dead recently too.
How many dead birds have you seen?
I’ve only seen one and it flew into our window.
The entire Bird Flu scamdemic was designed to get self a replicating “vaccines” into livestock populations. Aka, MRNA. Gazillions are at stake. Of money, not deaths.
This has been Bill Gate’s dream for decades. And yes, it’s a manufactured scare, just like covid.
Covid really was a bad cold.
Scamdemic part 3.
Please dont try to tell me that every chicken in Canada and Mexico is free of the virus because they’ve all been vaccinated
In fact our HHS just came out against MRNA vaxxing our farm animals because it leads to rapid mutation
Oh no, Dr. Fauci would never do something like that...
Again.
Crimes Against Humanity (and birds)
“Canucks and Mexicans are not genociding their chickens”
Canada and Mexico both vaccinate their commercial flocks against HPAI so their bbirds cannot get H5N1 in confined feeding operations. Imagine that. In Mexico case they have vaccinated when necessary since 1995. But by all means don’t let good medical science and facts get in the way of a good rant.
Why are eggs $2 or less a dozen in Mexico? They vaccinate their chickens, keep reading it until that fact sinks in. Maybe the USA should just use the same one that Mexico uses it obviously works get the FDA to approve it then you don’t have to cull flocks anymore. Letting the virus burn through a flock is NEVER going to be allowed so get over that idea, the risk of transmission and more importantly with hundreds of thousands of individual birds all a potential mutation source yeah never going to be allowed nor should it. Thankfully unscientific people are not in charge and have no real power and the world is a better place for that simple fact. If you don’t hold a PhD or higher these types of people should never be making scientific policy.
Obviously I didnt see the same story but I would be very careful about accepting a virus as being the source of mass sudden simultaneous mass die offs without someone going into depth as to how they arrived at that conclusion and having some sort of evidence that can be viewed.
I imagine youve seen some of these over the years? There will be footage of a flock of 5000 black birds flying over a residential area at about 27 feet and 4999 of them fall out of the air dead almost simultaneously. Not ones that flew into the ground, ones that just seem to have died midflight.
One would almost think that when hearing this has happened again, people would eventually begin to question the need to convene the same state level Warren Commission like group, year after year, to confabulate the repeated claims that what killed the birds was the same virus that deflected off swamp gas on Venus and sank the USS Maine. One might begin to question the veracity of this boards conclusion with the same intensity.
Someone from the government always eventually delivers a statement stating it was a very natural common virus. Everyone with even so much as an understanding that the word immunology has a meaning then tries to come up with a plausible cause until the thought space is zerged by those that didnt read or understand the article claiming that the cause was secret invisible military aircraft creating silent ultra-sonic booms that killed the birds.
Someone seems to know something or they wouldnt feel the need to present such a stupid obviously fake story before releasing the colony...
...of course, like I said, I didnt see that same story. Maybe it was a perfectly natural virus.
They probably only remove sick birds instead of culling the entire flock. I read on a home flock board that the actual death rate is 20%, but then you have 80% survivors with resistance.
Stupid USDA first created the problem and then magnified it with wholesale flock culling. Another government agency that needs to be gutted.
Some types of research needs to be shut down.
Better response than previous one
They had an outbreak in 2024, their past vaccines are not effective on H5N2 and as veterinarians have discovered, mass vaxx with a leaky or ineffective vaxx just promotes mutation ( Mareks chickens)
Wonder if they are using the same PCR test and if so, not slaughtering the entire flock
https://microbe-investigations.com/bird-flu-in-mexico-current-situation/
There should be stiff criminal charges whenever these people cook up something that escapes into nature and then starts spreading.
sounds scary
should we avoid eating chicken?
I’m near Elbert Country and stopped eating chicken salad two months ago, I’m more worried about mRNA vaxes in the chickens....Have they been doing this???
The author tells you what her evidence is:
” I wondered if the H5N1 strain of bird flu was a gain-of-function creation.”
“The study suggests that this strain may have emerged from gain-of-function research “
She’s “wondering”.
The study “suggests”.
The strain “may have”
She’s telling us that it’s just her hunch that GoF was involved. She doesn’t have any evidence that anyone at that poultry research center was doing GoF.
Leslie Eastman is a self described “citizen activist”. And activists usually have a goal motivating them other than simple curiosity and search for the truth. It’s like taking PETA at face value.
Why are any of these labs allowed to exist?
Yeah “H5N1” bird flu dates back to 1997 in Hong Kong...
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2500029-overview
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1473309916001535
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6902648/
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-6316-9_14
Birds, poultry and mammals affected:
https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Laboratories/Wildlife-Health/Monitoring/HPAI
https://libguides.mskcc.org/BirdFlu/H5N1/WildBirds
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/mammals
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