Two studies reporting what makes the H5N1 bird flu virus transmissible in mammals should be published fully, with no details left out, say flu experts meeting at the World Health Organisation in Geneva.

They say the benefits to public health outweigh the risks of bioterrorism, but they concede that publication should be delayed so scientists can "engage in public communication" aimed at preventing "unnecessary anxiety".

The decision to publish comes just a few short weeks after the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), the US's top biosecurity panel, asked these virologists not to publish the research in detail.

The NSABB worried that bioterrorists would use the information to make dangerous, transmissible H5N1 – or that other, less careful researchers would repeat the work and let the virus get away.

Why the difference? The researchers themselves have always wanted to publish without restriction, and of the 22 people who met in Geneva, fully half were leading flu researchers, and none of the rest were biosecurity experts concerned with bioterrorism.