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Viruses 2012, 4, 276-279; doi:10.3390/v4020276 OPEN ACCESS viruses ISSN 1999-4915 /journal/viruses Editorial A Plea for Caution: Huge Risks Associated with Lab-bred Flu Viktor Müller Research Group of Theoretical Biology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Pázmány P. s. 1/C, 1117 Budapest, Hungary; Tel.: +36-1-3722500/ext.8798; Fax: +36-1-3812188; E-Mail: mueller.viktor@ Received: 3 February 2012 / Accepted: 3 February 2012 / Published: 7 February 2012 Abstract: I wish to express concern about the maintenance of laboratory strains of H5N1 influenza viruses that might be adapted for transmission among humans. Keywords: influenza; H5N1; pandemic; science policy A strain of highly pathogenic H5N1 flu has recently been modified to be transmissible among ferrets [1], which is a correlate of potential human-to-human transmission. Another group created a recombinant virus that carries the H5 hemagglutinin gene stitched into the genetic background of the 2009 pandemic flu virus and is also transmissible among ferrets [2] (Box 1). These studies have sparked a major controversy about the publication of the procedures used and the continuation of this research. I believe that the studies done so far have yielded important insights: in particular, identifying a possible mutational pathway towards adaption to transmission among humans, demonstrating that adaptation to the new host does not necessarily reduce the h