The mutations in the bird flu, or H5N1, viruses that caused severe infections in British Columbia and Louisiana both occurred in a protein on the surface of the virus that allows it to attach to ...

The avian flu virus isolated from a hospitalized teenager in Vancouver has mutations in key areas that could help the virus spread more easily in humans, scientists say. CNN values your feedback 1.

Scientists have an idea of how bird flu would have to evolve in order to spread more easily among humans: A mutation in one protein on the virus' surface could help it bind better human cells.