EDINBURGH: The scientists have claimed that making further changes to the birds’ DNA would block the bird flu virus in three years, Western media reported on Tuesday.
They say that their work could produce fully immune chickens through gene editing.
Professor Helen Sang, of the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, said the they have made significant progress and have reached at a point where the results are very encouraging.
The researchers noted three genes which were significant for the bird flu (formally known as avian influenza) virus to reproduce in the chickens. The scientists have made two small changes to one of the genes using a technique known as gene editing.
Even after the two years the resulting chickens have shown no side effects while they also have enhanced resistance to bird flu. But still the chickens are not fully immune as half the chickens infected with the virus got an infection.
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Prof Mike McGrew, also of the Roslin Institute, told media that experiments in test tubes showed if changes are made to all the three genes, then a fully immune bird can be produced.
He was confident that editing the three genes will give full immunity to the chickens.
Gene editing is a method during which precise changes to DNA are made to change the function of a gene. In the recent research the scientists altered three genes to stop them reproducing bird flu reproduce without harming the chickens.
The researchers are trying to note further genetic changes needed before producing gene-edited chickens.
Bird flu is a major global threat, with a devastating impact in both farmed raised and wild bird populations. In the UK alone, the current outbreak of H5N1 bird flu has inflicted the loss of more than £100 million to the poultry industry.
