Transgenic approaches to generate influenza virus resistant poultry.

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The long term goal of this research is to generate transgenic chickens that are resistant to infection by avian influenza virus. Work towards this goal is already underway, and two different strategies to suppress virus replication have been developed and introduced into chickens. This current grant application is intended to secure funding to develop more sophisticated versions of these strategies. The immediate goal is to make the expression of the inhibitory molecules contingent upon virus infection. Thus, the inhibitory molecules would only be expressed when required. This would avoid any unforseen effects that transgene expression might have on the overall productivity of the birds. This will considerably broaden the range of inhibitory approaches available to us. This work has the potential to decrease the avian influenza threat to commercial poultry. This would have obvious benefits for food security, economic security for the industry and animal welfare. It also has the potential to remove one of the bridges by which avian influenza can cross the species barrier into humans. Thus it could reduce the likelihood of the emergence of new pandemic strains of influenza virus in man.