The U.S. government is using taxpayer money to fund “dangerous bird flu experiments” in collaboration with China and the United Kingdom.

The Department of Agriculture utilized a $1 million grant from April 2021 to March 2026 to support experiments involving “a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus.”

According to a letter from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, “the Biden USDA began financing the collaboration for ‘wet-lab virology’ to study ‘newly emerging avian influenza viruses’ in April 2021.”

“I was troubled to learn from the non-profit group White Coat Waste Project that USDA is supporting experiments involving ‘a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus’ that poses a ‘risk to both animals and humans’ in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which is controlled by the CCP, and a researcher affiliated with the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Ernst wrote.

The New York Post reports:

The Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing will help with tests to infect vaccinated chickens, mallard ducks, species of Chinese geese and Japanese quail to evaluate the virus’s transmissibility and “potential to jump into mammalian hosts.”

Ernst told Vilsack to hand over any departmental information about whether there are any safeguards in place, if the experiments constitute risky gain-of-function research, and what portion is being done in China.

Gain-of-function research involves experimentation that aims to increase the transmissibility or virulence of pathogens in order to understand their potential to cause pandemics.

“The health and safety of Americans are too important to just wing it, and Biden’s USDA should have had more apprehension before sending any taxpayer dollars to collaborate with the CCP on risky avian flu research,” Ernst told The Post in a statement.

“They should know by now to suspect ‘fowl’ play when it comes to researchers who have ties to the dangerous Wuhan Lab, and simply switching from bats to birds causes concern that they are creating more pathogens of pandemic potential,” she added, referring to risky experiments that may have led to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Here’s my warning: The Biden administration should be walking on eggshells until they cut off every cent going to our adversaries. We cannot allow what happened in Wuhan to happen again.”

Such viral experiments have “already caused outbreaks and killed humans,” Ernst also wrote to Vilsack, noting that “China’s labs have notoriously lax safety standards.”

“Collaborating studies will take place at sites in Georgia, Beijing and Edinburgh in Scotland,” Daily Mail reports.

Daily Mail added:

The documents were obtained by the campaign group, The White Coat Waste Project, and shared with DailyMail.com.

The papers show funding for the avian virus research began in April 2021 and it is slated to continue through March 2026.

The USDA told this website the project was applied for in 2019 and approved in 2020.

The specific viruses the researchers will work with include H5NX, H7N9 and H9N2, WCW reported.

A 2023 study described H5NX viruses as ‘highly pathogenic’ with the ability to cause neurological complications in humans.

The H7N9 strain first infected humans and animals in China in March 2013 and the World Health Organization said it is of concern ‘because most patients have become severely ill.’

The H9N2 strain has been found in dove in China and while it has a lower pathogenicity than the other strains, it can still infect humans.

The main collaborators on the project are USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute – a Wuhan lab partner.

Additionally, one of the researchers collaborating on the project is Wenju Liu, who is affiliated with the WIV – which is believed to have sparked the Covid pandemic – and a member of the board of a scientific journal, working with Zheng-Li Shi, who is known as the ‘bat lady’ for her extensive work on bat coronaviruses.

“Avian flu must be taken seriously — not made more deadly in unsafe Chinese labs. Not a cent more to risky research of pandemic potential by our adversaries,” Ernst wrote.

Read details of the project at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

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