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LONDON (Reuters) – British scientists are developing genetically modified chickens to fight the flu, as part of a new approach to preventing a deadly pandemic in humans.
Wendy Barclay, professor of virology at Imperial College College London and co-chair of the project, said that the first generation of modified chickens would hatch later this year at the Roslyn Institute of the University of London. Edinburgh in Scotland.
The DNA has been modified for birds with the help of a new genetic 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 could not catch the flu, and was "a barrier between wild birds and humans".
Health and infectious disease specialists around the world have put the risk of a human influenza pandemic one of their top concerns. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 killed about 50 million people. The greatest fear is that a deadly strain of bird flu is transmitted from humans to wild birds, and then turns into an airborne epidemic that can easily be transmitted between humans.
"If we can prevent the flu virus from pbading wild birds to chickens, we will stop the outbreak that is the source," said Barkley.
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