Contact: Genevieve Maul
Genevieve.maul@admin.cam.ac.uk
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University of Cambridge
GM chickens that don't transmit bird flu developed
Breakthrough could prevent future bird flu epidemics
Chickens genetically modified to prevent them spreading bird flu have been produced by researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh.The scientists have successfully developed genetically modified (transgenic) chickens that do not transmit avian influenza virus to other chickens with which they are in contact. This genetic modification has the potential to stop bird flu outbreaks spreading within poultry flocks. This would not only protect the health of domestic poultry but could also reduce the risk of bird flu epidemics leading to new flu virus epidemics in the human population.
The study, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), is to be published in the Friday, 14 January issue of the journal Science.
Dr Laurence Tiley, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Virology from the University of Cambridge, Department of Veterinary Medicine, said: "Chickens are potential bridging hosts that can enable new strains of flu to be transmitted to humans. Preventing virus transmission in chickens should reduce the economic impact of the disease and reduce the risk posed to people exposed to the infected birds. The genetic modification we describe is a significant first step along the path to developing chickens that are completely resistant to avian flu. These particular birds are only intended for research purposes, not for consumption."
Professor Helen Sang, from The Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, said, "The results achieved in this study are very encouraging. Using genetic modification to introduce genetic changes that cannot be achieved by animal breeding demonstrates the potential of GM to improve animal welfare in the poultry industry. This work could also form the basis for improving economic and food security in many regions of the world where bird flu is a significant problem."
To produce these chickens, the Cambridge and Edinburgh scientists introduced a new gene that manufactures a small "decoy" molecule that mimics an important control element of the bird flu virus. The replication machinery of the virus is tricked into recognising the decoy molecule instead of the viral genome and this interferes with the replication cycle of the virus.
When the transgenic chickens were infected with avian flu, they became sick but did not transmit the infection on to other chickens kept in the same pen with them. This was the case even if the other chickens were normal (non-transgenic) birds.
Dr Tiley continued, "The decoy mimics an essential part of the flu virus genome that is identical for all strains of influenza A. We expect the decoy to work against all strains of avian influenza and that the virus will find it difficult to evolve to escape the effects of the decoy. This is quite different from conventional flu vaccines, which need to be updated in the face of virus evolution as they tend only to protect against closely matching strains of virus and do not always prevent spread within a flock."
Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive, said: "Infectious diseases of livestock represent a significant threat to global food security and the potential of pathogens, such as bird flu, to jump to humans and become pandemic has been identified by the Government as a top level national security risk. The BBSRC funds world-class research to help to protect the UK from such eventualities and the present approach provides a very exciting example of novel approaches to producing disease-resistant poultry."
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| North Carolina transgenic chicken research |
Genevieve Maul, Office of Communications, University of Cambridge
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Email: Genevieve.maul@admin.cam.ac.uk
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Notes to editors:
1. The paper 'Suppression of avian influenza transmission in genetically modified chickens' will be published in the 14 December 2011 edition of Science.
2. Images available upon request.
3. BBSRC is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences and the largest single public funder of agriculture and food-related research.
Sponsored by Government, in 2010/11 BBSRC is investing around £470 million in a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution to the quality of life in the UK and beyond and supports a number of important industrial stakeholders, including the agriculture, food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
BBSRC provides institute strategic research grants to the following:
The Babraham Institute, Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Biological, Environmental and Rural Studies (Aberystwyth University), Institute of Food Research, John Innes Centre, The Genome Analysis Centre, The Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh) and Rothamsted Research.
The Institutes conduct long-term, mission-oriented research using specialist facilities. They have strong interactions with industry, Government departments and other end-users of their research.
For more information see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk
Science 14 January 2011:
Vol. 331 no. 6014 pp. 223-226
DOI: 10.1126/science.1198020
Vol. 331 no. 6014 pp. 223-226
DOI: 10.1126/science.1198020
- Report
Suppression of Avian Influenza Transmission in Genetically Modified Chickens
- Jon Lyall1,
- Richard M. Irvine2,
- Adrian Sherman3,
- Trevelyan J. McKinley1,
- Alejandro Núñez2,
- Auriol Purdie3,*,
- Linzy Outtrim2,
- Ian H. Brown2,
- Genevieve Rolleston-Smith3,
- Helen Sang3,† and
- Laurence Tiley1,†‡
+ Author Affiliations
- ‡To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Lst21@cam.ac.uk
- ↵† These authors contributed equally to this work.
Science 14 January 2011:
Vol. 331 no. 6014 pp. 132-133
DOI: 10.1126/science.331.6014.132-a
Vol. 331 no. 6014 pp. 132-133
DOI: 10.1126/science.331.6014.132-a
- News of the Week
Avian Influenza
Transgenic Chickens Could Thwart Bird Flu, Curb Pandemic Risk
Summary
The chicken soup of the future might just be made from transgenic birds that can't get bird flu—if regulators decide they're safe and consumers don't object. U.K. scientists have created transgenic chickens that can't pass on avian influenza, a disease that decimates poultry flocks and that flu scientists fear could spawn an influenza pandemic among humans. The study is published in this week's issue of Science (p. 223).
The editors suggest the following Related Resources on Science sites
In Science Magazine
Abstract
Infection of chickens with avian influenza virus poses a global threat to both poultry production and human health that is not adequately controlled by vaccination or by biosecurity measures. A novel alternative strategy is to develop chickens that are genetically resistant to infection. We generated transgenic chickens expressing a short-hairpin RNA designed to function as a decoy that inhibits and blocks influenza virus polymerase and hence interferes with virus propagation. Susceptibility to primary challenge with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus and onward transmission dynamics were determined. Although the transgenic birds succumbed to the initial experimental challenge, onward transmission to both transgenic and nontransgenic birds was prevented.
- Received for publication 21 September 2010.
- Accepted for publication 1 December 2010.
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