Tuesday 29 November 2022 02:45 PM Scientists on brink of creating bird flu-resistant CHICKEN that could spell end ... trends now
Genetically-edited chickens that are immune to bird flu could be a reality within a decade, scientists believe.
The breakthrough could spell an end to supermarket shortages of eggs and poultry that are caused by avian influenza.
Britain is currently being ravaged by its biggest ever bird flu outbreak, with health chiefs culling nearly 4million birds in a year and ordering the lockdown of all kept birds in a bid to stall the spread.
As well as emptying shop shelves of eggs, the spike in cases has sparked fears of a turkey shortfall this Christmas.
Chickens could be genetically edited with a decade to stop them from catching bird flu and threatening supplies of eggs and poultry, scientists say
The UK is in the grips of an avian flu crisis, with nearly 4million birds killed, supermarket shelves empty of eggs and Christmas turkey shortages expected. Pictured: Map showing a prevention zone (red), the area where mandatory housing is already in place (purple) and the areas under a 10km surveillance zone (grey)
A record number of bird flu cases were confirmed across England, Scotland and Wales last winter. The graph shows the prevalence of bird flu in the UK from 2006 to 2022, including cases (red line), deaths among the animal due to the virus (green) and the number that have been culled over concerns about bird flu (blue)
The new technique, developed three years ago, removes a section of the birds' DNA that the virus uses to replicate.
Successful tests were carried out in chicken cells.
But Dr Mike McGrew, who heads the study, revealed results involving live chickens will be published shortly.
Dr Mike McGrew, a senior lecturer at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, told The Daily Telegraph: 'We have been working on this project since those first results were published back in 2019 and we have results.
'These are described in a scientific paper that is currently under review in a journal.
'Breeding a chicken completely resistant to infection by avian influenza viruses is a scientific challenge and the research into the efficacy of any genetic resistance must be carefully developed.'
He added: 'If a resistant chicken were developed it would take five to 10 years before the genetic change was introduced into production flocks of chickens.'
The genome-editing method, which uses technology called Crispr, is akin to using a pair of molecular scissors to cut DNA at specific points to delete or replace them with alternate
