Researchers have altered parts of chickens’ DNA to significantly impede the transmission of bird flu without damaging their health, an intervention that could prove a simple and cost-effective way of protecting animal and humans from the disease.
In a peer-reviewed study published in Nature on Tuesday, researchers from Edinburgh university, Imperial College London and the Pirbright Institute used gene editing techniques to alter the section of chicken DNA responsible for producing ANP32A, a protein that the flu virus takes over to replicate itself.
In the study, chickens whose ANP32A molecule had been gene-edited were exposed to a normal dose of the H9N2-ULD strain of avian flu and nine out of 10 remained uninfected, with no transmission to other chickens.