NIH Scientists Deliberately Infect Mammals With Deadly Pandemic H5N1 Bird Flu in Montana—66% Death Rate: Journal 'Nature Communications'
Taxpayer-funded Rocky Mountain lab study causes severe respiratory disease and high mortality in mammals.
U.S. government scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health claim they have deliberately infected mammals with contemporary H5N1 bird flu viruses—experiments that produced severe respiratory disease and high death rates among the animals, according to a newly published study in Nature Communications.
The research was funded through the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—meaning the project was conducted using U.S. federal government funding inside government laboratories.
The experiments were carried out by NIAID scientists at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, a U.S. government high-containment bioresearch facility.
U.S. government researchers deliberately infected mammals with one of the world’s most feared pandemic pathogens.
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NIAID is led by Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger, while the NIH is led by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
Both agencies operate under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and ultimately fall under the authority of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Such risky research raises not only national but also international security concerns.
The deadly taxpayer-funded bird flu experiments come just months after a biosafety incident at the same NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratories facility, where federal records show a select agent pathogen—agents considered among the most dangerous biological threats—was reported lost, stolen, or accidentally released in November 2025.
You can contact NIAID here, the NIH here, and HHS here to voice opposition to deadly pathogen research—particularly after Congress, the White House, the Department of Energy, the FBI, the CIA, and Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) all acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic was “likely” the result of a laboratory incident tied to such research.
Severe Disease & High Mortality Observed in Infected Mammals
The infections in the new study produced severe respiratory illness and substantial mortality among the animals.
After infection with the virus:
Only 33.3% of animals infected with the human H5N1 virus survived
Only 50% of animals infected with the bovine virus survived
Only 50% of animals infected with the mountain lion virus survived
Many animals died from infection, while others reached severe disease endpoints requiring euthanasia.
Clinical symptoms appeared within two days and included:
severe respiratory distress
open-mouth breathing
lethargy
hunched posture
weight loss
Pathology examinations revealed extensive lung damage, including necrotizing pneumonia and inflammatory lung lesions.
Researchers also detected the virus spreading beyond the lungs into multiple organs, including the spleen, liver, kidney, and brain, indicating systemic infection.
H5N1 Viruses Used in the Experiment
The purported viruses used were said to be recent H5N1 strains currently circulating in animals and humans.
The study claims to have used virus samples isolated from:
a human H5N1 infection in Texas
an H5N1 infection detected in dairy cattle in Ohio
an H5N1 infection detected in a mountain lion in Montana
All three viruses are said to belong to the clade 2.3.4.4b lineage of highly pathogenic avian influenza, the same lineage responsible for the global H5N1 outbreak spreading across birds, livestock, wildlife, and mammals.
Virus samples were supplied by outside institutions—including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The Ohio State University, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the Montana Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory—before being used in infection experiments conducted at the NIH laboratory.
Direct Respiratory Infection of Mammals
To initiate infection, scientists say they deliberately introduced the virus into the animals’ respiratory tract.
The study states that hamsters were:
“intranasally inoculated with 10⁴ TCID50 of each H5N1 isolate.”
Intranasal inoculation is said to involve placing the virus directly into the nasal passages to infect the respiratory system.
Researchers say they then monitored:
virus replication
viral shedding
disease progression
survival
transmission between animals
The experiments therefore involved intentionally introducing highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses into mammals to observe how the virus behaves inside mammalian hosts.
Experiments Conducted in a U.S. Government Biocontainment Laboratory
The study confirms the experiments were conducted inside a biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) containment laboratory at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories facility.
According to the paper:
“All work with infectious HPAI H5N1 viruses was approved for biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) conditions.”
BSL-3 laboratories are used for pathogens capable of causing serious or potentially lethal disease through respiratory exposure.
The research was also reviewed under the NIH’s Dual Use Research of Concern oversight system, which evaluates experiments involving pathogens with potential national security implications.
Though the study claims "[t]he project did not meet the US Government definition of DURC or ePPP,” the researchers still deliberately infected mammals with pandemic-risk H5N1 viruses that killed up to two-thirds of the animals.
Government Scientists Behind the Study
The experiments were conducted by NIAID researchers including:
All are affiliated with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the NIH division responsible for research on infectious diseases and pandemic pathogens.
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The next pandemic under preparation? Why is Bill Gares not in prison?
Horrendous! There is absolutely No excuse for using animals to experiment on!! They know dam well what’s going to happen !! THIS CRUEL & inhumane so called research must be STOPPED! No tax payer wants their monies spent in such a manner ever! This 2026 not 1875! Shame on the scientists who participate in this activity!