[1]British scientists have developed a new genetically modified “superchicken” which they say does not spread bird flu, a serious health hazard that has claimed over 300 lives in the past seven years.
The scientists behind the GM chicken said their research could stop new strains of avian influenza mutating in domestic fowl and spreading to people, leading to worldwide pandemics. And it is quite “inconceivable” that the chicken’s meat or eggs could be harmful, claimed the team from Cambridge University and Edinburgh University in the UK.
However, they added that it will need rigorous safety checks before it could go into the food chain, the Daily Mail reported.
Avian flu is a serious threat to people. It doesn’t easily infect humans, but when it does it can be deadly. The latest, most virulent strain — called H5N1 — has killed more than 300 people since 2003 in 15 countries and led to the deaths of millions of birds. In 2007 around 260,000 turkeys were culled in East Anglia after outbreaks of H5N1.
Doctors fear that it could mutate in flocks of chickens into a new strain that is transmissible from person to person, fuelling a pandemic that kills millions of people.
Dr Laurence Tiley, from Cambridge, said: “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.” Detailing their work in journal Science, the scientists said that the chickens carry an extra gene that stops the flu virus replicating in their bodies. The gene, which was added to embryo chicks while they were in the egg, produces “decoy” loops of RNA, the chemical cousin of DN, in cells throughout their bodies, they said.
The decoy RNA interferes with the machinery that viruses use to make copies of themselves inside cells and spread throughout the body. So, even if GM chickens fall ill and die from flu, they cannot pass it onto other birds or people.
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