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UK Researchers Developing Influenza-Resistant Birds
New submitter ravensmith0821 writes: UK researchers are working on disease-resistant chickens, adding a gene to eggs before they hatch that renders the bird less susceptible to avian influenza. Reuters reports: "Their research, which has been backed by the UK government and top chicken companies, could potentially prevent repeats of this year's wipeout: 48 million chickens and turkeys killed because of the disease since December in the United States alone. But these promising chickens - injected with a fluorescent protein to distinguish them from normal birds in experiments - won't likely gatecrash their way into poultry production any time soon. Health regulators around the world have yet to approve any animals bred as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for use in food because of long-standing safety and environmental concerns."
Sir, I am genuinly curious as to how much money your country of origin allocates to you monthly for your disability. Please reply, preferably in poetry and/or ASCII art.
I mean, ok, with many other genes we introduce to organisms, there's a reason this won't be part of a genetic makeup developed by natural selection. There is no reason for bacteria to produce insulin, that's something we want them to do, that has no benefit for the bacteria themselves. And a terminator gene that ensures its seeds won't germinate is certainly nothing that would survive long in nature, it's something seed manufacturers want to ensure their customers come back and buy more instead of setting aside some for next year.
But why wouldn't such a gene that allows a species to be resistant against something detrimental to its health develop naturally? One should assume that such a gene should already be part of their genetic makeup. Such individuals would have a significant advantage over others who die from the bird flu.
One really has to wonder what the drawback of having that gene is...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Would not a bird resistant to influenza actually select for influenza strain which can contaminate those bird and be more ferocious for those bird NOT resistant ?
Smoother problem solved if only humans weren't so fat and angry.
That settles it: the egg story came before the chicken story.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Well that's exactly what I feared when GP asked for a poem: no one needs to be reminded that Vogon poetry is only the third worst poetry in the Universe.
Will that gene also cause autism in the birds?
UK Researchers Developing Influenza-Resistant Birds
But why concentrate on the women when "man flu" is the real problem?
They are so dumb that they think they are Democrats!!
... India
They were / are called "Red Junglefowl", - Gallus gallus, - a tropical member of the Phasianidae family
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
While there _are_ influenza in the Tropics, it does not occur so often
That is why chicken have yet the chance to develop that counter-influenza gene
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I, for one, welcome our new avian overlords.
They like to bury their heads in the sand, and if that's not a sure sign of autism, I dunno what the hell it is!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Experimenting on poultry livestock to become more resistant from diseases needs thorough research if this will have some effects the public consumers. We can't just eat anything we don't know especially if it genetically engineered. I am Amy, and I write for e cigarettes reviews blog.
So we're engineering healthier chickens so we can just kill them. How about we just stop eating the poor things
I for one welcome our new super strain!
We either need to ease the strain on the ecosystem by a couple billion human mouths to feed or embrace GMO as the savior of our species.
if the normal everyday bird flu is mostly resisted, won't that create evolutionary pressure which is likely to favor the strains which are best at overcoming resistance? And so we could get stronger, more infectious Bird Flus? which might be better also at crossing the gap from avians to mammals?
I dunno, this one just seems like shooting ourselves in the feet...
Enough said. Prepare yourselves!
UK researchers are working on disease-resistant chickens, adding a gene to eggs before they hatch that renders the bird less susceptible to avian influenza.
Good. I remember growing up in Honduras where most people in the cities, out of necessity raise their own poultry, my family included. On the country side it is obvious, but not so in the cities, in the poor neighborhoods unless you live in them.
And every awful year, around August, an avian flu would just move across the region, and bro, poultry would die by the thousands. Industrial-level farms would survive it given that their animals were isolated. Poor people in isolated villages would also fare well with their poultry animals.
But subsistence urban farmers like us, that pestilence would just kill our animals, our only source of affordable meat and eggs. We tried everything - immunization, injection of vitamins prior to the expected pestilence, covering the pens, the floors and walls with ash and limestone (very powerful antiseptic.) Nothing,nothing will work.
Animals would die by the thousands, thousands and thousands, and we had nothing left to do but to burning the carcasses in pits.
After many years, we had an epiphany and we started raising Muscovy ducks which are resilient to this pestilence. We had to make adjustments in our little backyard for the animals, but it worked well. When the next round of influenza came, our house was the only one with standing, aliven-n-kicking poultry.
After that, everyone who could spare the extra space needed for ducks caught on the the idea and made the switch.
So, although we were able to adapt, many cannot for a variety of reasons. Avian flu has a cost, and a very hard one for poor people in developing countries.
People in the 1st world sometimes ignore these nuisances and forget that experiments like this can make the difference between children eating an egg a day or just eating boiled millet.
I can understand the preoccupation with altering the environment, but me, knowing what it is like to grow poor and what it is like to spend days without eating any type of protein, I say to these scientists, go for it.
Unkillable incubators for the very worst kinds of influenza!
What could go wrong?
Health regulators around the world have yet to approve any animals bred as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for use in food because of long-standing paranoia and social media misinformation campaigns."
I'll never know the end of this story, and it saddens me.
Every tiny little change in everything that we do always has some unintended consequences. And usually it is something that no one sees coming. So yes if we alter a gene in a chicken there is some element of risk. We can not know the long term consequences. But the opposite is also true. We do not know the unintended consequences of not altering that gene either. But saving 48 million food birds is important not only to the farmers but to the public as well. So like everything else in life we roll the dice a tiny bit. I'm sure that someone on the lunatic right will want to stomp about with protest signs over this huge non issue.