H7N9 Virus Capable of Airborne Transmission

From LiveScience:

One strain of the H7N9 bird flu virus appears to spread easily through the air between ferrets, which are a good model for how the virus may spread in humans, a new study from China says.

Researchers tested transmission of five strains of H7N9, all taken from people who got sick with the virus.

Some ferrets were directly infected with the virus, and others were placed in cages nearby to see if they got sick simply by breathing the same air. All five strains of H7N9 were able to spread through the air between ferrets, but four of the strains did not transmit very well. However, one strain was able to spread very well — it infected 100 percent of the ferrets who were exposed to it through the air.