While some teams are developing vaccines in order to combat bird flu, researchers from the UK are trying to create the "glow in the dark" chickens, which are also called transgenic chickens.
The team composed of scientists from Department of Veterinary Medicine of University of Cambridge and University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute is trying to manufacture disease-resistant chickens. They will be fowls that have the ability to prevent the dreaded bird flu virus from replicating, infecting other chickens, and eventually harming people who are exposed to the birds.
They have been working on the experiments since 2011, and so far, they have learned to introduce a decoy molecule into the chickens they've been working on. This decoy is meant to imitate the way an important molecule of the virus genome works. It is intended to attract the virus, so when it reacts to the decoy, the virus's ability to replicate is halted.
But how can they make these disease-resistant chickens easier to spot among probably hundreds of other chickens? They have also found a way to make these chickens to emit green glow when exposed to UV light.
This may be enough to raise concerns of many, but according to the team, it may take an additional 10 years before these types of chickens will be available in the market, and by then, the green glow may be altogether missing.
Based on their studies presently, their chickens still don't have 100% immunity against the disease. This means that even if the virus may no longer replicate, as long as the chicken can still get infected, it still has the chance to eventually evolve, get past the defects that prevents it from spreading, and even introduce a new strain or type of bird flu.
Further, while the study has attracted many breeders, they are more supportive of having disease-resistant than glow-in-the-dark chickens. The team also has to fight off the strong opposition against GMO products.
