British research team uses ‘gene editing technology’
The world’s first chicken resistant to avian influenza
Even if exposed to the virus, 90% are ‘abnormal’
A scientist cutting out part of a gene with scissors. Invisible genetic scissors are not shaped like actual scissors, but they can cut out desired genes using enzymes. [사진 출처 = 노벨 재단]
A British research team has created chickens resistant to avian influenza (avian influenza AI) using gene editing technology. Even if these chickens are exposed to the avian flu virus, 9 out of 10 avoid the avian flu virus. Even if infected, there is almost no spread. The research team believes that if these chickens are introduced into chicken farms, avian influenza can be completely prevented within three years. Since the UK is a country where gene editing is allowed in animals, there are observations that there is a high possibility of introducing chickens resistant to avian flu.
A joint research team led by Helen Saint and Mike McGrew, professors in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and Wendy Barclay, professors in the Department of Epidemiology at Imperial College London (ICL), announced on the 11th (local time) that they had created chickens resistant to avian influenza using gene editing technology, according to an international academic journal. It was published in ‘Nature Communications’. It is the world’s first chicken resistant to avian influenza.
Avian flu is a fatal disease for chickens, with a fatality rate of close to 100%. Avian flu occurs when birds, such as chickens, ducks, and migratory birds, are infected with the ‘H5N1’ virus. It spreads through the air, infects the respiratory tract, and rarely infects humans.
Chickens infected with bird flu die within 24 hours. There is no vaccine or treatment developed. The only way to deal with HPAI is to cull birds. Recently, the scale of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) epidemic seems to be growing to the extent that culling alone cannot be used to respond.
The chicken developed by the research team is attracting attention as a solution to prevent such large-scale infectious diseases. The research team focused on the fact that after the avian influenza virus infiltrates chickens, it proliferates depending on a specific chicken protein called ‘ANP32A’. They found a strategy to edit the ANP32A protein gene to prevent the virus from multiplying.
Chickens genetically edited to be resistant to avian influenza (right) and regular chickens. [사진 출처 = 네이처 커뮤니케이션스]
The research team edited the ANP32A protein gene in cells collected from chick blood. These cells were then used to hatch chicks. After these chicks were fully grown to 10 chickens, an experiment was conducted in which they were exposed to the avian influenza virus.
As a result, 9 animals were found not to be infected. When the virus was artificially injected into chickens, about 5 chickens became infected, but the virus multiplied slowly. After observing the gene-edited chickens for more than two years, it was found that there were no problems with their health or egg production.
In this study, the research team also discovered that proteins called ‘ANP32B’ and ‘ANP32E’ in chicken cells affect the proliferation of avian influenza viruses. The research team said, “If we gene-edit all of these proteins, it would be possible to create chickens with complete resistance to avian influenza.”
Gene editing is expected to bring about major innovation in the poultry industry. In addition to preventing bird flu, it is attracting attention as a technology that can reduce the number of lives lost. Among the chicks that hatched only a few days ago, all male chicks die because they cannot lay eggs. It is estimated that 7 billion cockerels die each year worldwide.
‘Humin Poultry’, a joint venture between Israel’s Volkani Research Institute and the private company Humin, announced in December last year that it had developed a technology to produce only female calves through gene editing. This is a technology that stops the development of a male embryo in a fertilized egg. When blue light is shined on eggs laid by gene-edited chickens, some of the DNA is activated and they grow into female heifers. No new genetic material is added. The research team said, “We will be able to solve animal welfare issues.”
2023-10-22 21:51:08
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