Avian 'flu is a serious problem, producing multiple deaths in wild and domesticated birds. Imperial College London researchers used the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) editing tool to alter the chicken's ANP32 gene. This change, results in chickens becoming highly resistant to Avian 'flu (90% showed no signs of infection, when exposed to a typical viral dose) (
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/10/worlds-first-flu-resistant-chickens-could-pave-way-for-gene-edited-uk-poultry). CRISPR can also render other domesticated bird species (e.g. ducks, geese and turkeys), resistant to the virus. The Imperial team believe that editing 3 specific chicken genes, would produce birds completely immune to Avian 'flu. This wouldn't only commercially benefit chicken and egg farmers, it would prevent the virus ever infecting the humans, who work closely with these birds. Removing flocks of infected domesticated birds could also limit the spread of Avian 'flu in wild bird populations. Visiting wild birds wouldn't pick up infections and spread the virus to local populations.
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