GM 'surrogate hens' could lay eggs of rare chicken breeds, scientists say

Radical plan to maintain diversity of gene pool proposes use of genetically modified chickens as surrogate mothers

 

Hannah Devlin Science correspondent in Boston

  

Friday 17 February 2017 17.24 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 22 February 2017 17.37 GMT 

The Rumpless Game is squawky and, as its name suggests, lacks a tail, while the Burmese Bantam, has fantastically flared leg feathers and a head like a feather duster. But the true value of rare chicken breeds, according to a team of scientists working to save them from obsolescence, is not their decorative crests and plumage, but the diversity they bring to the chicken gene pool.

In a radical plan to preserve rare varieties such as the Nankin, Scots Dumpy and Sicilian Buttercup, scientists at the the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute have bred genetically modified chickens designed to act as surrogates that would be capable of laying eggs from any rare breed.

Speaking to journalists at the AAAS conference in Boston, Mike McGrew, who is leading the project, said: “These chickens are a first step in saving and protecting rare poultry breeds from loss.”

The surrogacy technique, which places a new, mind-bending twist on the classic chicken or egg question, involves first genetically engineering hens to be sterile. This is done by deleting a gene, called DDX4, that is required for the development of primordial follicles (the precursors to eggs) meaning that the surrogate hens will never lay eggs that are biologically their own.

A batch of sterile GM chicks hatched at the Roslin Institute in 2016, becoming the first genetically modified birds created in Europe. “We produced a hen that doesn’t have any eggs,” said McGrew, who is first author on a paper on the work published this week in the journal Development.

The next step will be to transplant follicles from rare birds into the surrogate (this is done before the surrogate chick is hatched from its own egg), meaning it would go on to lay eggs belonging to entirely different breeds of chicken.

Given that the hens would also need to be artificially inseminated with sperm from the same rare variety, the approach may appear unnecessarily convoluted. Why not just breed the rare birds the normal way?

Continued 

Death row reprieve for rare chooks in quarantine on Adelaide's Torrens Island

MORE than 4000 rare chickens on death row in quarantine on Torrens Island have been given a stay of execution until 10am on Friday.

A syndicate which spent a decade and $500,000 importing the poultry obtained a last minute court injunction halting the planned destruction of the flock at 7am today but Department of Agriculture officials insist the birds will have to be destroyed.

The Australian Rare Poultry Importation Syndicate is meeting with its lawyers today seeking advice on alternatives to save the chickens.

The destruction order was issued late Friday after a single, week-old chick died and an autopsy concluded the death was due to a strain of salmonella.

The letter advising the syndicate of the impending destruction from the officer who issued the order said it would receive 'a statement of reasons for my decision in the near future.'

The syndicate says the disease has not been detected in any other birds, including 'sentinel' birds bred to be susceptible to disease, and suspect it may be a 'false-positive' result.

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Federal Court to decide fate of 4000 rare chooks on July 25

ADELAIDE'S now world famous death row chickens have another stay of execution after Federal Court Judge Anthony Besanko gave 4000 fancy imported birds a second lifeline until midnight on July 25.

The chickens - being followed in blogs and petitions from around the world - arrived in Adelaide as eggs in what supporters say is a 'Noah's ark' project to replenish the local gene pool, as meat chickens are hybrids and no new non-commercial breeds have arrived since 1948.

However, the 10 year, $500,000 project to establish a disease-free flock made up of 45 breeds from the United Kingdom then bringing their fertile eggs to Australia faces disaster after the eggs hatched nine weeks ago and one of several chicks which died, was diagnosed with salmonella.

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Meigs VoAg/FFA students raising rare birds

POMEROY — Did you know that behind Meigs High School there is a small chicken coop occupied with not just ordinary chickens but a few birds of the rare Java breed?

The Java type chickens were reportedly in America as early as 1835 but are said to have practically disappeared from here in the 1950s.

While the population of Javas has increased, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy continues to list Javas as “critical” on its watch list, meaning fewer than 500 breeding birds from five or fewer primary breeding flocks are known.

The Javas at Meigs High School were given to the Vocational Agriculture (VoAg)/FFA department by Rodney Butcher of the Harrisonville community, the uncle of an FFA member, with the thought that it would give the students an opportunity to raise and show the rare birds which reside in Meigs County.

Last summer Tiffany Will purchased two of the Javas from Butcher to enter in the Meigs County Fair competition. She received a reserve champion award on her chickens.

Read more: Gallipolis Daily Tribune - Meigs VoAg FFA students raising rare birds