Swiss Lab Engineers Hybrid Bird Flu–Mammal-Jellyfish Virus That Infects Mammalian Cells: Journal 'Nature Communications'
A chimeric "Frankenstein" pathogen merging avian, mammalian, and jellyfish genes was shown to infect mammalian cells, raising international security concerns.
A Nature Communications study published Monday describes how Swiss scientists designed a recombinant “Frankenstein” bird flu virus by combining genes from an H5 avian influenza virus, a mammalian virus backbone, and a fluorescent gene from a jellyfish.
All in the name of vaccine development.
Switzerland is a party to the Biological Weapons Convention, which bans offensive bioweapons but allows the creation and possession of dangerous biological agents and toxins for defensive or countermeasure research—an ambiguity that effectively permits dual-use biodefense programs under the guise of peaceful or protective purposes.
In other words, the entire premise of “vaccine development” itself demands moral and scientific scrutiny—because under its banner, governments and institutions are routinely creating, modifying, and stockpiling viruses that could just as easily serve as intentional or accidental biological weapons as they could medical countermeasures.
Congress, the White House, the Department of Energy, the FBI, and the CIA have confirmed that the COVID-19 pandemic was likely the result of lab-engineered pathogen manipulation.
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The new Nature Communications publication confirms that this new construct—built on a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) framework—infected and replicated inside mammalian cell lines.
The Swiss study reads:
“To create a clade-matched vaccine, we engineered VSVΔG(H5) replicon particles encoding either the unmodified HA of A/Dalmatian Pelican/Bern/1/2022 (H5N1), containing a polybasic (pb) cleavage site, or a version with a monobasic (mb) site… .”
Scientists removed VSV’s natural surface-entry gene and substituted the spike-like H5 protein from a highly pathogenic bird-flu strain isolated from a pelican.
Because VSV is a mammalian virus, this substitution fuses avian virus entry machinery with mammalian virus replication machinery.
The construct also carries the GFP (green fluorescent protein) gene—originally derived from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria—to make infected cells glow for tracking.
Together, the vector contains genetic material from three species groups: bird, mammal, and jellyfish.
1. Cross-Species Infectivity
The study shows that the chimeric virus could infect multiple mammalian cell lines.
“Multicycle virus replication on MDCK cells. Cells were infected with the indicated viruses (m.o.i. = 0.0001) and cell culture supernatant sampled at 1, 24, and 48 h p.i. Infectious titers were determined on BHK-21 cells (mean ± SD of 3 infection experiments).”
Elsewhere the study reads: “Subsequently, the antibody/virus mixture was transferred to confluent MDCK or Vero cell monolayers in 96-well cell culture plates and incubated at 37 °C for 24 h.”
This means hamster (BHK-21), dog (MDCK), and monkey (Vero E6) cells all became infected by the chimeric virus.
The finding confirms that a virus built with avian surface proteins can enter and replicate in mammalian cells—evidence of cross-species compatibility.
2. Replication Competence in Mammalian Cells
The Frankenstein virus replicated and spread in mammalian cells, producing new infectious particles and confirming replication competence.
The study reads:
VSVΔG(H5pb), with the polybasic cleavage site, exhibited limited spread, and some virus release. In contrast, a construct encoding both the wild-type HA and NA from A/Dalmatian Pelican/Bern/1/2022 (H5N1), VSVΔG(H5pb:N1:GFP), replicated efficiently, reaching approximately 107 f.f.u. mL-1 by 48 h post infection (p.i.).”
This shows that once both the influenza HA and NA genes were added, the hybrid virus became replication-competent and achieved high titers in mammalian culture.
That represents a significant functional gain over either wild-type parent virus alone.
The chimeric virus didn’t just enter mammalian cells—it made new viruses and infected neighboring ones.
3. Efficient Virus Assembly & Release
The authors note that the addition of influenza neuraminidase (NA) was essential for releasing infectious particles:
“NA is critical for the efficient release of infectious viral particles.”
By providing NA, the hybrid virus could bud and spread between cells—an ability that the wild-type VSV construct without NA largely lacked.
4. Partial Replication & Shedding in Live Animals
Although the version selected for animal testing was labeled “propagation-defective,” vaccinated chickens still shed viral RNA:
“Minimal shedding of vRNA was detected … shedding was restricted to a single day in two birds and only from the oropharyngeal site.”
That means the recombinant (Frankenstein) virus persisted long enough in living hosts to reproduce limited amounts of genetic material before clearance—evidence of biological activity in vivo.
Bottom Line
Researchers in Switzerland reported creating and testing a triple-origin hybrid virus composed of:
a mammalian VSV backbone,
avian influenza H5 and N1 genes, and
a fluorescent jellyfish marker.
The resulting construct was said to successfully infect and replicate in mammalian cells—and was administered to hundreds of birds.
While presented as a vaccine-development effort, the research shows how synthetic-virus systems can merge genetic material from unrelated species and generate replication-competent hybrids—an outcome that raises obvious biosafety questions about accidental or intentional release from laboratory settings.
The findings underscore the urgent need not only for stricter oversight and disclosure of cross-species recombinant-virus research, but for a global moratorium to end such high-risk experiments altogether.
Switzerland joins the long list of countries now lab-engineering dangerous chimeric bird flu pathogens.
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We either end these bioweapon programs or they end us
Why are we doing stuff like this when we could be using our brains to heal all the damage that has been done? We need to see all life as sacred.