Scientists plan to make mutant forms of the H7N9 Bird Flu virus in hopes of preventing a pandemic in the upcoming cold weather.
The flu has infected about 133 people in Taiwan and China, 43 of them have died, Reuters reported.
The experiments will be conducted in secure labs located in different locations around the globe.
Mutating the virus is controversial, and potentially dangerous, but researchers believe finding out the number of possible mutations is essential in stopping a pandemic.
"It's clear this H7N9 virus has some hallmarks of pandemic viruses, and it's also clear it is still missing at least one or two of the hallmarks we've seen in the pandemic viruses of the last century. So the most logical step forward is to put in those (missing) mutations first." Ron Fouchier, a leading virologist, said.
The researchers will attempt to identify combinations of mutations that could allow the virus to spread from person to person.
Fouchier and a team of researchers had conducted a similar study in 2011 on a different strain of the flu called H5N1. The team was successful in creating a strain that could be spread easily among mammals.
The results caused concern the findings could get into the wrong hands, and be used in biological warfare.
The virus could already have mutated to allow it spread among humans. In China, a 60-year-old man was infected with the bird flu after visiting a poultry market, the International Business Times said via a report.
The man's 32-year-old daughter contracted the virus as well while caring for her father at the hospital, she had no known recent exposure to poultry.
"The infection of the daughter probably resulted from contact with her father ... suggesting that in this cluster the virus was able to transmit from person to person," the authors stated.
After studying the woman's virus, they found it to be almost genetically identical to the bug her father had caught.
Person-to-person transmissible strains are not common, 43 patients have been observed caring for sick loved ones and have not contracted the virus.
