The World Health Organization is investigating an Australian researcher’s claim that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.

Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview Tuesday that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs that scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.

The World Health Organization received the study last weekend and is reviewing it, Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said in an interview Monday. Gibbs, who has studied germ evolution for four decades, is one of the first scientists to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus, which was identified three weeks ago in Mexico and threatens to touch off the first flu pandemic since 1968.

A virus that resulted from lab experimentation or vaccine production may indicate a greater need for security, Fukuda said. By pinpointing the source of the virus, scientists also may better understand the microbe’s potential for spreading and causing illness, Gibbs said.

“The sooner we get to grips with where it’s come from, the safer things might become,” Gibbs said in a telephone interview from Canberra.

“It could be a mistake” that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans, he said.

Gibbs and two colleagues analyzed the publicly available sequences of hundreds of amino acids coded by each of the flu virus’s eight genes. He said he aims to submit his three-page paper Wednesday for publication in a medical journal.

Nancy Cox, director of the influenza division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, has received the report and has decided there is no evidence to support Gibbs’ conclusion, she said. Since researchers don’t have samples of swine flu viruses from South America and Africa, where the new strain may have evolved, those regions can’t be ruled out as natural sources for the new flu, she said.

Key developments on swine flu outbreaks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and government officials:

• Deaths: Global total of 63 – 58 in Mexico; three in U.S.; one in Canada and one in Costa Rica. Officials said the Canadian, U.S. and Costa Rican victims also had other medical conditions.

• Confirmed cases: Estimated 5,914 in 33 countries.

• WHO says countries should save antiviral drugs for those patients most at risk, including those already suffering from other diseases or complications. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says pregnant women in particular should take the drugs if they are diagnosed with swine flu – even though the effects on the fetus are not completely known.

• China says it has tracked down and quarantined most passengers who were on flights with the mainland’s first confirmed case. The man is a Chinese graduate student at the University of Missouri and became ill while returning to China.

• A study published in the journal Science estimates Mexico may actually have had 6,000 to 32,000 cases. It also estimates Mexico may have had 23,000 cases by April 23, the day it announced the epidemic. The study estimates that between 0.4 percent and 1.4 percent of swine flu cases are fatal.

The Associated Press