Chickens genetically modified to be impervious to bird flu may one day prevent the spread of the disease on farms, a study suggests.
The gene, known as ANP32A, provides the instructions that tell chicken cells how to make a protein that flu viruses rely on to successfully hijack cells. Disrupting the avian virus’s ability to commandeer the protein stopped most genetically edited birds from getting infected.
Testing the gene editing in such a ubiquitous agricultural animal that’s susceptible to bird flu makes the new study “especially impactful and important,” says Jacob Yount, a viral immunologist at Ohio State University in Columbus who wasn’t involved in the research.
The virus can rapidly spread among birds on poultry farms, sometimes with devastating consequences. Beginning in 2022, an outbreak hit the global poultry industry hard, pushing farmers to cull millions of birds in the United States alone. After a summer lull, on October 4, a turkey farm in South Dakota confirmed the first case on a U.S. poultry farm since April, affecting around 47,300 birds.
2023-10-10 10:00:00
Article from www.sciencenews.org