Gene-edited chickens could reduce the threat of bird flu spread and promote sustainability

A solution may be around the corner to an avian flu outbreak that has led to the deaths of millions of chickens over the past two years, causing food prices to rise, impacting opportunities for farm workers, and raising concerns about public health.

As detailed by Fast Company in October, scientists successfully hatched chickens that they believe are resistant to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, which emerged in 2022.

To do this, they used CRISPR gene-editing technology, which allowed them to make two amino acid substitutions in the chickens, thus altering the protein that hosts the virus, according to the findings in the journal Nature Communications. Nine of the 10 gene-edited chickens had avoided infection at the time of publication.

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Extreme weather events, crop-destroying pests and pathogens, and the spread of disease have increasingly impacted our food supply amid a warming planet. According to a study in Nature Microbiology, “the unprecedented extent of highly pathogenic avian influenza coincides with intensifying global climate changes that alter host ecology and physiology.”

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