Pandemic flu viruses come from birds. Scientists rub their buttocks

A dangerous badbadin is hiding on the Jersey Shore – a murderer so deadly that he could kill 30 million people in a year.

This threat is a pandemic influenza virus that scientists are not yet ready to fight.

"The world must prepare for pandemics with the same seriousness of preparation for war," Bill Gates said last year, on the occasion of the centennial of the Spanish flu, which claimed 50 lives. million people in 1918.

If nothing has been done, an influenza pandemic today could kill 150 million people – almost half of the US population – in 20 months.

"If history has taught us anything, it's that there will be another deadly global pandemic," Gates said.

Read more: According to Bill Gates, a devastating "whim of nature" could kill 30 million people in a year. The researchers are battling this threat by studying the butts of birds.

All influenza pandemics, from the 1918 Spanish flu to the 2009 H1N1 flu epidemic, are caused by birds. They are the primordial hosts of nature for pandemic influenza.

So every spring, a troupe of influenza researchers flock to the far south of New Jersey, in Delaware Bay, where a seasonal frenzy of migratory birds creates a unique breeding ground or even without previous, of the flu virus.

Their annual research, which involves collecting samples of dung and bird droppings, is a strange but crucial ritual that scientists hope can help prevent the next influenza pandemic before it's too late.

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