RT Journal
A1 Hampton T
T1 AIrborne transmission of h5n1
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2012
FD August 1
VO 308
IS 5
SP 444
OP 444
DO 10.1001/jama.2012.9461
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2012.9461
AB 
Researchers infected ferrets with H5N1 strains containing mutations that would be expected to increase the virus' affinity for mammalian hosts. They then swabbed the animals' noses and inoculated more ferrets, repeating the process several times. Novel mutations appeared, ultimately allowing the virus to become transmissible through the air, as the researchers found when they placed healthy and infected ferrets in adjacent cages but not in direct contact. Four mutations in the gene for hemagglutinin, a protein that helps the virus enter host cells, and 1 in a protein that helps the virus replicate its genome, were consistently present in airborne-transmitted viruses.