the world from the College of American Pathologists (CAP). CAP assists laboratories in accuracy by providing unidentified samples of viruses; private contractor Meridian Bioscience in Cincinnati, U.S., chose the 1957 strain instead of one of the less deadly avian influenza virus subtypes. The 1957 H2N2 virus is considered deadly and the U.S. government called for the vials containing the strain to be destroyed. References Further reading Pandemic preparedness: lessons learnt from H2N2 and H9N2 candidate vaccines New Scientist: Bird Flu Pandemic-causing 'Asian flu' accidentally released Persistence of Q strain of H2N2 influenza virus in avian species: antigenic, biological and genetic analysis of avian and human H2N2 viruses External links Influenza Research Database Database of influenza sequences and related information. H2N2 1957 in Hong Kong 1889–1890 flu pandemic de:Asiatische Grippe es:Gripe asiática it:Influenza asiatica pt:Gripe asiática sv:Asiaten zh:亚洲流感