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Rasmussen said the worry now is that if H5N1 mutates to become transmissible between people, it’ll be young children as well as the old and compromised who are likely to be most affected.

The intelligence service had indications that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been carrying out experiments where viruses are modified to become more transmissible to humans for research, they say.

Egg prices already are going up due to the accelerating spread of H5N1, a highly transmissible and fatal strain of avian influenza.

"However, our study doesn't suggest that such evolution has occurred or that the current H5N1 virus with only this mutation would be transmissible between humans."

“This suggests that ... additional mutations are likely required for the virus to become fully transmissible between humans.”