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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Winnipeg lab tapped for new H5N1 virus research

By: Helen Branswell

Posted: 02/4/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

If Canadian scientists want to conduct research on H5N1 flu viruses modified to enhance their ability to spread, the work will have to be done in laboratories with the top level of biosecurity, the Public Health Agency of Canada says.

In other words, in Winnipeg.

The agency said in a statement research on the viruses in this country would need to be conducted in labs designated as Containment Level 4 -- known as BSL4 labs elsewhere. The only Level 4 labs in Canada are located at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

That requirement is a step up from the one governing research on regular H5N1 viruses. Canadian scientists are allowed to work on those viruses in Level 3 laboratories.

For the time being, the advice is moot; the viruses in question are locked up in labs in the Netherlands and the United States. While controversy rages over whether the teams that created them should be able to publish their work in scientific journals, it's unlikely those labs will share samples, especially across international borders.

The decision is interesting, because neither the Dutch nor the American teams have Level 4 labs at their institutions. However, there are calls in some quarters to limit future work on the viruses to Level 4 labs, which would substantially restrict the number of teams that could work on them.

The guidance relates to viruses created by Dutch and American researchers trying to see if H5N1 viruses could adapt to transmit easily among people. The viruses spread quickly among poultry but rarely infect people. While limited human-to-human spread has been reported, the viruses haven't acquired the ability to spread easily to and among people as human flu viruses do.

The research groups took different paths, but both came up with viruses that spread readily among ferrets, considered the best animal model for predicting how a flu virus will behave in people.

When the researchers submitted their studies for publication, a committee of biosecurity experts who advise the U.S. government recommended the journals be asked to redact key sections of the studies. The National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity said publishing the full studies would be too dangerous.

The journals and researchers have tentatively agreed to hold back the methods sections of the studies, as long as a system can be created to share the information with scientists and public health officials with a legitimate need to know.

A National Microbiology Laboratory spokesman said the biosafety advisory was drawn up after the Public Health Agency did a risk assessment.

Any researcher who wanted to import samples of the viruses to Canada would need to obtain an import permit, Robert Cyrenne said in an email.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 4, 2012 A10

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