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The company (Baxter Pharmaceuticals) that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.  
 
The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.  
 
Full story here: http://www.lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2009/02/27/8561066.html  
 
As usual, this story is getting almost no coverage from North American mainstream media (big surprise). The potential consequences of this were massive, and could have lead to a pandemic. The contamination incident only came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died.  
 
Edited by CraigM, 2009-03-11 01:09:42