USDA/China Doing Gain-of-Function Work on H5N1 Bird Flu Since 2021

Serial passage of H5N1 through mallard ducks is especially alarming.

By John S. Leake and Nicolas Hulscher, MPH (Candidate)

The USDA has been collaborating with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to mutate H5N1 Bird Flu via serial passage through mallard ducks, Chinese geese, and Japanese quail species since April 1, 2021.

In two related Research Projects (439621 & 440252) titled Exotic & Emerging Avian Viral Diseases Research, USDA team research leader Darrell R Kapczynski notes:

Approach:
The roles of host-related factors and innate immunity on virus evolution will be determined in vitro and in vivo through two approaches: (1) Using chicken, quail, and duck embryonic fibroblasts and tracheal organ cultures as models of domestic and wild bird hosts; secondly, in vivo passage of viruses through mallard ducks and Chinese goose species to predict evolution in natural hosts; thirdly, viral evolution and transmission dynamics of avian influenza virus (AIV) infection in Japanese quail as an indicator species of potential to jump into mammalian hosts (because of their expression of salicylic acid (SA) receptors for both avian (a-2,3) and mammalian (a2,6) influenza viruses.

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. This method has a history of artificially introducing novel pathogens into the wild:

The dual-use gain-of-function research tool of serial passage was first applied to a strain of H1N1 Swine Flu, a variant of the pandemic influenza virus that was genetically modified before it either leaked out of a Soviet lab or was introduced as part of an attenuated vaccine trial in 1977. Although no one has ever taken responsibility for the introduction of this virus, it would become the first known example of a virus created by serial passage leaving a lab, which was later determined due to its inexplicable genetic distance from any known sister strain.

I was especially astonished to see the FDA and Chinese Academy of Sciences are performing serial passage of H5N1 through mallard ducks. The mallard is the most abundant, wide-ranging duck on earth and can crossbreed with 63 other species. Mallards are also well-known asymptomatic carriers of bird flu—that is, they carry it around, but are often not sickened by it. Thus, the mallard is literally the ideal species for transporting an infectious disease pathogen as wide and far as possible.

Consider the potentially disastrous consequences of creating a mutant strain of H5N1 by means of serial passage through mallard ducks—a mutant strain that could be more contagious or more virulent or more likely to jump from bird to mammalian hosts. Imagine a scenario in which this strain escapes from a lab and infects wild mallard ducks—a species of migratory waterfowl numbering in the millions that flies all over North America and Eurasia, landing in farmers’ fields, lakes, ponds, rivers, and reservoirs, thereby literally contaminating EVERYTHING.

Mallard Range Map

The bulk of the USDA research (“in-vivo challenge work”) is conducted at the U.S. National Poultry Research Center, Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) facility in Athens, Georgia. The Chinese Academy of Sciences performs in vivo and vitro fitness measurements for the project. Dr. Darrell Kapczynski, senior scientist at the USDA, is at the heart of this project. He’s been working with H5N1 since 2008, purportedly helping to develop vaccines.

A few months after the start of this gain-of-function attempt, a new H5N1 virus (clade 2.3.4.4b) appeared in wild birds in the U.S. leading to the current outbreaks.

Researchers propose that the current H5N1 viruses arrived in North America from wild migratory bird populations coming from Asia. This hypothesis was posited in a 2022 paper titled Transatlantic spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 by wild birds from Europe to North America in 2021.

The name of one of the authors, R.A.M. Fouchier, caught my eye, as he is widely known for performing notorious GoF work on H5N1 to make it transmissible among ferrets. I was also surprised to read the authors’ statement:

Our analysis of wild bird migration suggested that these viruses may have been carried across the Atlantic via Iceland, Greenland/Arctic or pelagic routes.

The basis of this hypothesis is that the virus was purportedly found in a sick great black-backed gull in a pond in St. John’s, Newfoundland. This strikes me as questionable, because great black-backed gulls that reside in North America are not known to migrate between Europe, Greenland, and Newfoundland, but south along the east coast of North America.

Finally, if the emergency of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China has taught us anything, it’s that we should question any official representations of infectious pathogen origins.

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.

Today, April 18, 2024, WHO Chief Scientist Jeremy Farrar is raising the alarm about H5N1. We now know that Farrar was a key player in The Great SARS-CoV-2 Charade that concealed the true lab origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Farrar’s fellow deceiver and manipulator, Rick Bright is also sounding the alarm on Twitter. Followers of the late, great Zev Zelenko may recall his expose of Rick Bright’s deliberate sabotage of early treatment for COVID-19 in favor of the Moderna mRNA vaccine at the same time awarded a $483 million BARDA grant to Moderna.

The suspicious facts and circumstances we have presented in this essay should serve as a starting point for extensive investigations into what the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex is doing with the H5N1 bird flu pathogen. We strongly encourage independent investigators to perform their own research and share with us whatever they find.

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