British scientists are developing gene-edited chickens designed to be totally resistant to flu in a new approach to trying to stop the next deadly human pandemic. In this case the "edits" are to remove parts of a protein on which the flu virus normally depends, making the chickens totally flu-resistant. Scientists fear that the next pandemic will be caused by a deadly flu strain jumping from wild birds to poultry to humans. (James Akena/Reuters)Global health and infectious disease specialists cite the threat of a human flu pandemic as one of their biggest concerns. "If we could prevent influenza virus crossing from wild birds into chickens, we would stop the next pandemic at source," said Barclay.

Source: CBC News January 22, 2019 02:26 UTC