The U.S. government is spending $1million of American taxpayer money to fund gain-of-function experiments on dangerous bird flu viruses in collaboration with Chinese scientists. The research involves infecting ducks and geese with different strains to make them more transmissible and infectious, and study the viruses' potential to 'jump into mammalian hosts,' according to the research documents.

It is being funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and will take place at sites in Georgia, Beijing and Edinburgh in Scotland. It comes despite such research being restricted in 2022 and growing concerns that dubious Chinese research 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 specific viruses the researchers will work with include H5NX, H7N9 and H9N2. 

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 being funded by the USDA 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 (pictured), who is known as the 'bat lady' for her extensive work on bat coronaviruses. 

Different aspects of the research are slated to take place in multiple locations, including poultry research centers in Athens, Georgia, at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh and at the Chinese academy in Beijing. 

Justin Goodman, senior vice president of the WCW, said in a statement to DailyMail.com: 'It's reckless and indefensible for... bureaucrats to bankroll dangerous avian flu gain-of-function studies involving virus experimenters from the notorious Wuhan animal lab that likely caused COVID and its CCP-run parent organization, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.'

He added: 'Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill for animal experiments with foreign adversaries that soup up viruses and can cause pandemics or create bioweapons.' 

Following the publication of the documents by WCW, Republican Sen Joni Ernst (pictured) of Iowa wrote a letter Thursday to Tom Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, seeking more information about the department's ongoing funding of the research. 

The letter read: '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."' 

Sen Ernst said in a statement to DailyMail.com: '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 [China] on risky avian flu research. 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: '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.' DailyMail.com has reached out to the USDA for comment.

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