The US government is spending $1million of American taxpayer money to fund experiments on dangerous bird flu viruses in collaboration with Chinese scientists.
The research involves infecting ducks and geese with different strains of viruses to make them more infectious, and study the viruses’ potential to ‘jump into mammalian hosts,’ according to research documents.
It is being funded through the US Department of Agriculture and collaborating studies will take place at sites in Georgia, Beijing and Edinburgh in Scotland.
It comes despite similar research being restricted in 2022 and growing concerns that dubious Chinese studies may have started the Covid pandemic.
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.