• Documents obtained by White Coat Waste Project provide new details about the dangerous $1 million bird flu gain-of-function experiments being conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in collaboration with a Wuhan animal lab white coat tied to the Chinese government.
• Records secured by WCW via the Freedom of Information Act show that animals will be infected with bird flu and allowed to suffer in painful and “severe” experiments without any pain relief.
• The USDA’s animal experiments are using gain-of-function techniques to soup up “highly pathogenic avian influenza” and see if it can jump from birds to mammals.
• The documents contradict statements about the animal experimentation collaboration with China made by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the USDA’s partners downplaying the risks of the project to animals and people.

Earlier this year, a White Coat Waste Project (WCW) investigation exposed how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has wasted at least $1 million of taxpayers’ money on an ongoing collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (the Wuhan animal lab’s parent organization) and a Wuhan lab white coat on dangerous bird flu gain-of-function experiments. The project began in 2021 and is slated to run through 2026. 

This seems like a recipe for disaster after the taxpayer-funded gain-of-function catastrophe we exposed at the Wuhan animal lab that likely created COVID. 

Our high-profile USDA investigation prompted Republican and Democratic Congress members to criticize the experiments and demand answers from the USDA via letters and legislation.

Now, new documents obtained by WCW through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the USDA and its collaborators are shedding more light on the cruel and treacherous animal experiments, and contradicting claims made in defense of the project.

In a February news article about our investigation, the USDA’s Wuhan lab-linked collaborator in China stated, “all research activity is done safely and is not harmful to animals and humans.”

However, documents now obtained by WCW from the USDA and its collaborators show clearly that the birds and mice will be subjected to “severe” procedures for experiments conducted in China and the U.S.

The records show animals as young as one day old will be infected with bird flu and exhibit, “respiratory signs…diarrhea, edema…mild to severe depression and death.” Many will be subjected to maximum pain experiments (USDA pain category E) where they are denied all pain relief.

The USDA-CCP project description clearly details how experimenters will use the gain-of-function technique of repeatedly infecting ducks, geese, quail, and other animals with wild bird flu viruses to force the pathogens to evolve into unnatural lab-created strains and study their “potential to jump into mammalian hosts.”  

The specific bird flu viruses being experimented on (H5NX, H7N9, and H9N2) are dangerous to humans and have already caused deadly outbreaks. The project proposal even states that the bird flu strains are, “a pathogen with the potential to infect man.”

Records secured by WCW show that the USDA’s bird flu experiments with China involve “genetically modified microbes.”

Following criticism, one of USDA’s partners misleadingly claimed, “the collaborators are not attempting to passage viruses to make them more transmissible in birds or mammals.” 

The new documents we’ve obtained further contradict this and confirm that one of the project’s objectives is to specifically study whether “these viruses demonstrate the ability to jump from avian to mammalian species during the course of passage.”

During a March 2024 USDA budget hearing, Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA) criticized this dangerous project and questioned the Biden Administration’s Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about the agency’s partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Wuhan lab animal experimenter.

In response, Vilsack testified that “its really not a collaboration per se” and “to my knowledge there is not [data] sharing…all of this is basically walled off, so everything we’re doing stays with us, it doesn’t necessarily go to the UK or to China.”

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack stated the USDA’s project with the Chinese Academy of Sciences “is not a collaboration per se” yet the USDA website says otherwise.

Why are they still working with the Chinese government on risky virus research when it has violated U.S. grant and… pic.twitter.com/fc8B2HdIWT

— Congressman Ben Cline (@RepBenCline) March 21, 2024

Yet, the project title begins with the phrase “US-UK-CHINA COLLAB” and the Wuhan experimenter told the press, “The purpose of three countries collaborating is to exchange the research data.”

New documents obtained by WCW via FOIA also clearly illustrate that USDA experimenters plan to use tax dollars to fly to partners in China and the UK to share data and that all refer to each other as “collaborators” in their funding proposals.

Is this how you want your money spent?  We’re urging Congress to ensure not another red cent of taxpayers’ money is shipped to unaccountable animal labs in China for cruel and dangerous animal experiments. You can help!