(Sh4rp_i)
As bird flu threatens to morph into a virus that can be passed from human to human, British scientists have taken a step forward in preventing the spread of the deadly epidemic by producing genetically modified chickens which are unable to transmit the flu to other creatures.
Scientists at Cambridge and Edinburgh universities found that while the newly developed chickens could still get infected and die from H5N1 bird flu, they didn’t pass it on to other birds, Reuters reports.
“Preventing virus transmission in chickens should reduce the economic impact of the disease and reduce the risk posed to people,” said Laurence Tiley, of Cambridge’s department of veterinary medicine, one of the lead researchers on the study.
Asia and the Middle East have been hit hard by outbreaks of bird flu, which has killed millions of birds either through infection or destructive measures taken to prevent its spread. When people are infected in rare cases, it is often fatal.
Researchers are worried that the virus will in time be able to passed from person to person, so preventing it from bouncing around from bird to bird could be a key step in preventing that outcome.
The next move is to create chickens that will not only not transmit the flu, but actually resist it all together.
Scientists make chickens that don’t spread bird flu [Reuters]
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I make my own chickens at home.
I make my own super chickens at home.
I make my own mutant super chickens at home.
…so I should eat a sneezing chicken?
Thanks to Netflix Instant Play, I have been able to start watching Survivors, a 3-season series set in Britain, in which 90+% of the population is wiped out because of a deadly strain of influenza.
Fun times.
Wait, THREE seasons?! I watched the first two, but I totally missed that there was a third! That show is so so good.
My understanding is the 1970s version had 2 season, and the 1998 version had 3. I could be mistaken.
Ah, what I watched was from 2008. Netflix has two seasons of that, so maybe that’s all there is. But it was so good, I’d definitely watch a third season.
Yes – Lots of fun…
Just ask the people who were around in 1918:
1918 flu pandemic
The 1918 flu pandemic (the Spanish Flu) was an unusually severe and deadly influenza pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin.
Most victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or weakened patients. The flu pandemic was implicated in the outbreak of encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s.
The pandemic lasted from June 1917 to December 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. Between 50 and 100 million died, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.
An estimated 50 million people, about 3% of the world’s population (1.8 billion at the time ), died of the disease. Some 500 million, or 28% (≈1/4) were infected.
Tissue samples from frozen victims were used to reproduce the virus for study. Among the conclusions of this research is that the virus kills via a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body’s immune system) which perhaps explains its unusually severe nature and the concentrated age profile of its victims. The strong immune systems of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
Yeah, but imagine everyone who dies were the only people to survive instead. Imagine that the 50-100 million turned into billions.
Great show.
I bet you’re a ball at parties.
“I was watching Law and Order last night and…”
“So, you find mass murder entertaining do you?”
“Did you see last night’s Pawn Stars?”
“No. I find watching people sell all their worldly goods to greedy capitalists to delay their inevitable sinking into a life of prostitution and drug use to be in bad taste.”
“On the Biggest Loser…”
“How can you watch a show that flaunts to the Third World our excessive availability of calories? Do you know how many African children who died last night from malnutrition while you were watching TV. Millions, untold millions.”
KFC geneticall y modifies chickens to not have heads and feet (thereby reducing costs to feed them ) and they’re forced to change their name to KFC from kentucky fried chicken.
Now that genetically modifying chickens has become mainstream, I wonder if KFC will be able to go back to calling itself Kentucky Fried Chicken (they were forced to change their name because the creatures they breed for sale do not have heads of feet so, technically, they’re not chicken).
Citation?
I’ll provide some for you, although they are to disprove this “theory” of yours.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/kfc.asp
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/k/kfcgeneticchickens.htm
http://ezinearticles.com/?Kentucky-Fried-Chicken-Changes-to-KFC&id=1890811
I await the counterproof.
I don’t have a citation supporting the previous commenter, but here is what Snopes says about it: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/kfc.asp
Well, I received this e-mail from my uncle once, and it sounded pretty legit!
There’s some crazy shit out there, but I for one like to do a little bit of research when someone tells me something like, “KFC has genetically modified their chickens to have no heads or feet” rather than just taking its accuracy for granted and then parroting that crap all over the internet.
You still believe that? Seriously?
Are you serious? I haven’t heard that BS in 10 years…
As a former employee of KFC during the late 90s when these rumors first started (and as much as I hated that job), I can honestly tell you that the chickens, do in fact, have heads and feet as on occasion the we would receive the random feet or heads that didn’t manage to get cut off prior to transport.
There was also a rumor going about the same time that the chickens were engineered to be boneless. Clearly anyone who believed that never ate at KFC.
Cool, but does it taste like chicken?
According to Eddie Izzard, everything tastes like chicken. Even chicken.
Chicken Boo, what’s the matter with you?
You don’t act like the other chickens do.
You wear a disguise
To look like human guys,
But you’re not man; you’re a Chicken Boo
That’s a cute chicken photo. Between that and cute piglet pics I feel even guiltier about eating meat. But not guilty enough to stop eating roast chicken or bacon.
I think your cute receptor may be broken.
My cute receptor is turnedoff in the presence of barbeque sauce. So chickens, piglets and cows have no effect on me. Yum.
Aww, c’mon…the bright red thingie & the cool brown & white feather patterns? That’s cute!
Nope, sorry; I only see the cold face of a ruthless predator. Or at least one that longs for the time when his kind were Utahraptors; Lions of their age.
Totally parsed the headline wrong.
Scientists Genetically Modify Chickens So They Don’t Say “No” To Contracting Avian Flu
Don’t anybody tell the anti-GM crazies, because God forbid we ever do anything to our food that would make it safer, more nutritious, and/or able to feed our ever-increasing population!
or change its color “cough, real un-genetically altered carrots are purple” cough…
Wasn’t this how ‘Night of the Lepus’ started?
I recommend people only watch that movie if they want to laugh themselves to death.
These chickens will grow to human size, escape their confines and develop violent behavior against humans… and coupons.
What a great way to create selective pressure for stronger, more virulent forms of the bird flu!