respiratory droplets. After Fouchier offered an article describing this work to the leading academic journal Science, the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) recommended against publication of the full details of the study, and the one submitted to Nature by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin describing related work. However, after additional consultations at the World Health Organization and by the NSABB, the NSABB reversed its position and recommended publication of revised versions of the two papers. However, then the Dutch government declared that this type of manuscripts required Fouchier to apply for an export permit in the light of EU directive 428/2009 on dual use goods. After much controversy surrounding the publishing of his research, Fouchier complied (under formal protest) with Dutch government demands to obtain a special permit for submitting his manuscript, and his research appeared in a special issue of the journal Science devoted to H5N1. The papers by Fouchier and Kawaoka conclude that it is entirely possible that a natural chain of mutations could lead to an H5N1 virus acquiring the capability of airborne transmission between mammals, and that a H5N1 influenza pandemic would not be impossible. In May 2013, it was reported that scientists at the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute in Harbin, China, had created H5N1 strains which passed between guinea pigs. In response to Fouchier and Kawaoka's work, a number of scientists expressed concerns with the risks of creating novel potential pandemic pathogens, culminating in the formation of the Cambridge Working Group, a consensus statement calling for an assessment of the risks and benefits of such research. Mammal-to-mammal transmission (2022–2023) Although mammals, including humans, had become infected with H5N1 bird flu strains in the past, these cases had ostensibly been caused by direct exposure to infected birds, such as through consumption of birds by wildlife or exposure to infected poultry by farmers. In contrast, the October 2022 mammalian outbreak of H5N1 on a Spanish mink farm showed evidence of being the first recorded case of mammal-to-mammal transmission, with 4 percent of the farm's mink population dying from H5N1-related haemorrhagic pneumonia. The mink respiratory tract is particularly well suited to act as a pathway of viral transmission into humans, which has concerned public health professionals due to the production of all but one approved human vaccine requiring the eggs of chickens, which H5N1 kills at a 90-100 percent fatality rate. Infected mink