Genetically modified chickens face "deadly epidemic"

LONDON (Reuters) – British scientists have developed genetically modified chickens to fight the flu, as part of a new and important attempt to prevent a deadly pandemic in humans.

Wendy Barclay, Professor of Virology at Imperial College London, co-chair of the project, said the first generation of modified chickens would hatch later this year at the Roslyn Institute of the University of London. Edinburgh, Scotland.

The DNA has been modified for birds with the help of a new gene modification technique called Cresper.

In this case, the "adjustments" are made to remove some of the protein that the flu virus usually depends on, making the chicken completely resistant to the flu.

Barkley said the idea was to produce poultry that can not catch the flu and that would be "a barrier between wild birds and humans," Reuters reported.

Global experts in health and infectious diseases consider the risk of a human influenza pandemic as one of their main concerns.

"If we can prevent the flu virus from pbading wild birds to chickens, we will stop the outbreak that is the source," said Barkley.

Poultry producers' concerns about public acceptance have been a major impediment to this approach.

"People are eating foods from farm animals that have been modified during decades of traditional hybridization, but they may be concerned about the consumption of genetically modified foods," he said. she said.