Israeli startup working to develop chickens resistant to bird flu
"As is well known, the coronavirus has also been transmitted from animals to humans, so the risk to public health is real."
By Jerusalem Post Staff, February 12, 2021
Chicken (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
An Israeli startup is working to develop chickens which are resistant to the bird flu using precise gene editing.
The
company, eggXyt, signed a license agreement to use GEiGS (Genome
Editing induced Gene Silencing) technology from Tropic Biosciences to
develop the flu-resistant birds. The technology is based on the CRISPR
technology which earned a Nobel Prize this year.
Outbreaks
of avian influenza affect human health as well and require the
destruction of millions of chickens around the world every year.
"The
avian flu epidemic is one of the most difficult problems in the poultry
industry, with enormous economic and environmental damages," said Prof.
Daniel Offen, co-founder of the company.
“For example, in a US outbreak
in 2015, 50 million birds costing $3.2 billion were destroyed. These
days, many chicken coops in Europe have contracted bird flu. In the
event of an outbreak, all the birds are destroyed in all the chicken
coops within a radius of 2 km - whether the chickens are sick or not.
This is due to the constant fear that the disease will also infect
humans. As is well known, the coronavirus
has also been transmitted from animals to humans, so the risk to public
health is real.
Especially in this time of global epidemic, there is no
need to say too much about finding solutions to these issues."
The
CRISPR method, developed by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna,
uses an enzyme called Cas9, which scans DNA segments, attaches to the
desired segment in a very precise way and allows precise cutting or
modification of the DNA.
Dr.
Malkiel Cohen, research director of eggXYt, explained that the
resistant birds are developed by editing DNA fragments in chickens to
attack the virus. The challenge is to find a solution that will provide
resistance to a wide range of strains of the virus, as the virus forms
mutations just like influenza in humans.
Together with Tropic
Biosciences, eggXYt is working to introduce minimal changes in the
chickens' DNA to target gene segments that will work against viruses
without harming the chicken cells.
EggXYt
was founded in 2015 by Offen and Yehuda Elram. A year afterwards, it
was selected as one of the 100 start-up companies that could change the
world (Disruptive Innovations). The company uses technology developed by
Offen for identifying the sex of the chicken inside the egg immediately
after laying.
"Through the latest technologies, original ideas and experience we
have accumulated, we hope to develop flu-resistant species and thus
contribute to the well-being of animals and the health of us all," said
Elram.
The
technology uses genetic editing with commercial varieties of laying hens
eggs containing embryos of male chickens glow in fluorescent light that
can be identified on the day of laying.
The females remain of the same
genetics without a marker. This gets rid of the need for expensive
incubation, sorting, extermination of live chickens and air pollution.
This will prevent unnecessary killing and allow four billion eggs a year
that don't develop into chicks to be sold to various industries.
😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇
No comments:
Post a Comment