{"id":177868,"date":"2025-09-24T05:03:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T05:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/177868\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T05:03:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T05:03:05","slug":"how-gene-editing-of-farm-animals-could-help-prevent-a-covid-like-bird-flu-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/177868\/","title":{"rendered":"How gene editing of farm animals could help prevent a COVID-like bird flu epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a Westminster Hall\u00a0debate<\/a>\u00a0in Parliament \u2026, former Defra Secretary Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP joined a growing list of political, scientific and industry leaders calling on the UK Government to bring forward implementing rules under the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 to allow the commercial use of gene editing in farmed animals.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0on national biosecurity from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) pointed to the increased threat to human health of zoonotic spillovers from farmed livestock, and the potential opportunities for scientists to use gene editing to break the cycle of infection by developing disease-resistant animals. The TBI report called on the government to bring forward the secondary legislation needed to legalise gene-editing in animals as a matter of urgency, and also pressed Ministers to establish a Precision-Bred Livestock Resilience Fund to support targeted research into spillover risk reduction.<\/p>\n

In February 2024, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture (APPGSTA) brought together a\u00a0coalition<\/a>\u00a0of leading politicians, scientists, vets, farmers and breeders to warn of the ethical implications of not embracing of a technology with the potential to deliver solutions to previously intractable disease problems in livestock.<\/p>\n

And earlier this year, in my capacity as a veterinarian and APPGSTA vice-chair, I also\u00a0led calls<\/a>\u00a0for early implementation of the Precision Breeding Act for farmed animals to help mitigate the risk of bird flu spiralling out of control and causing another zoonotic pandemic in the human population.<\/p>\n

This followed a stark warning from leading virologists at the Global Virus Network (GVN), who\u00a0urged governments worldwide<\/a>\u00a0to address the rising threat of H5N1 avian influenza, and to make preparations for potential human-to-human transmission.<\/p>\n

In a scientific paper published in the journal\u00a0The Lancet Regional Health \u2013 Americas<\/a>, GVN experts warned that\u00a0\u201cthe recent emergence of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus infections in dairy cows and humans in the US has raised alarms regarding the potential for a pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper noted that so far more than 995 dairy cow herds and at least 70 humans have been affected, including cases of severe disease and the first reported H5N1-related human death in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cSporadic human infections with no known contact with infected animals highlight the possibility of viral adaptation for efficient human-to-human transmission,\u201d\u00a0the authors warned.<\/p>\n

In the UK, transmission of bird flu to mammals has also been\u00a0documented<\/a>\u00a0in seals, dolphins, red fox, otters, sheep and dogs, and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)\u00a0confirmed<\/a>\u00a0Britain\u2019s first human case of bird flu in January this year.<\/p>\n

Against this serious background, the Global Virus Network\u2019s warnings must be heeded and acted upon to avoid a potential Covid-style pandemic in the human population.<\/p>\n

The recent\u00a0announcement<\/a>\u00a0of \u00a31 billion investment in a cutting-edge National Biosecurity Centre in Surrey as the UK\u2019s main animal biosecurity facility is welcome, and its stated goal of protecting the British public and the economy from future pandemics confirms that the Government takes the heightened threat posed by animal diseases seriously.<\/p>\n

But why would Ministers not also act to speed up implementation of the Precision Breeding Act and so remove current regulatory barriers to potential genetic solutions to these increasing zoonotic threats?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Promising UK research led by scientists at Imperial College in London and the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, for example, may offer a route to break the cycle of H5N1 transmission, which originates in wild bird populations. The scientists involved are using gene editing techniques to develop bird flu resistant chickens.<\/p>\n

[The] team reported promising results for breeding birds with effective resistance to H5N1. The researchers estimate that within two years this breakthrough could pave the way to their ultimate goal of developing gene edited chickens which are fully immune and which do not pass on the virus.<\/p>\n

This UK-based research is recognised as being way ahead of other efforts around the world to breed genetic resistance or to develop effective vaccines against bird flu, and may hold the key to stemming H5N1 transmission from wild birds to farmed poultry on a global basis.<\/p>\n

Similar efforts are underway at UK research institutes using precision breeding technologies to develop genetic resistance to other virulent livestock diseases, such as African Swine Fever, which is spreading north throughout Europe and was\u00a0recently confirmed<\/a>\u00a0in wild boar in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which borders the Netherlands. Central Europe has also been\u00a0grappling with outbreaks<\/a>\u00a0of Food & Mouth Disease (FMD) in cattle this year, with Hungary reporting its first FMD cases for more than 50 years. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To enable research such as this to reach the market, and in the face of urgent warnings from the world\u2019s leading virologists, the Government must act without delay to bring forward the secondary legislation needed to implement the Precision Breeding Act for farmed animals, as it has for plants.<\/p>\n

There are economic opportunities at stake too. The UK is a world leader in animal genetic research, with the potential to drive global commercial developments in new breeding technologies. But we must not fall off the pace in regulatory terms.<\/p>\n

In a landmark decision, British genetics firm Genus plc recently\u00a0received approval<\/a>\u00a0from the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for its gene edited PRRS resistant pig, which was co-developed with UK researchers at the Roslin Institute.<\/p>\n

PRRS (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome) is one of the most devastating global pig diseases, which causes suffering and premature death in pigs. It is also the most costly infectious disease affecting pigs worldwide,\u00a0estimated<\/a>\u00a0to cause annual losses of over \u00a31.3 billion to European pig producers and over \u00a3500 million to the US pig industry.<\/p>\n

Healthier animals are more productive, which makes good economic sense. Shares in Genus leapt by 22% on news of the FDA approval, and have since increased by a further 24%. Given the UK Government\u2019s pro-growth agenda, surely this is another positive sign that we should be capitalising on our scientific leadership in these technologies?<\/p>\n

Of course, there is also a moral imperative to free up access to these new genetic technologies where they can be used to improve animal health and welfare. And disease is by far the greatest cause of poor health and welfare in farmed animals.<\/p>\n

So, ultimately, if we have access to technologies which can alleviate animal suffering, reduce the risk of another zoonotic pandemic in the human population, and also free up opportunities to boost productivity and economic growth, why would we not use them?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for the UK Government to act.<\/p>\n

Lord Sandy Trees is Emeritus Professor of Veterinary Parasitology, University of Liverpool and a Cross-Bench Peer since 2012. He is the only veterinarian in the House of Lords.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A version of this article was originally posted at\u00a0Science for Sustainable Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0and has been reposted here with permission. Any reposting should credit the original author and provide links to both the GLP and the original article. Find\u00a0Science for Sustainable Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0on X\u00a0@SciSustAg<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a Westminster Hall\u00a0debate\u00a0in Parliament \u2026, former Defra Secretary Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP joined a growing list…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[200,79],"class_list":["post-177868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-genetics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}