'If we
could prevent influenza virus crossing from wild birds into chickens, we would
stop the next pandemic at source'
Josh Gabbatiss Science
Correspondent @josh_gabbatiss
Wednesday
23 January 2019 12:55
An
attempt to create gene-edited chickens that
are totally resistant to flu has been launched by scientists in a bid to
avert the next global pandemic.
Knocking
out genes that are vital for the virus as it infects a host could produce birds
that act as an effective barrier between dangerous new strains developing in
the wild and humans.
A massive
outbreak of flu, which can be transmitted from other animals including birds is
considered by experts one of the biggest dangers facing humanity.
The most
recent major event was the H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic that struck in 2009.
It killed around half a million people worldwide.
But an
outbreak of Spanish flu that struck in 1918 and killed around 50 million
people.
The first
transgenic chicks that could stop a new form of bird flu before it reaches
humans will be hatched later this year at the University of Edinburgh.
“If we
could prevent influenza virus
crossing from wild birds into chickens, we would stop the next pandemic at
source,” said the project's leader Professor Wendy Barclay, a virologist
at Imperial College London.
The
project is based on previous work that found a gene present in chickens codes
for a protein that flu viruses require to infect a host.
Tests
conducted in the laboratory found cells without this gene could not be
penetrated by the viruses.
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