As a recent example of what could happen in the future, Pitesky cited repeated outbreaks of African swine fever in various Asian countries over the past decade, which have devastated the pig industry and are among the most widespread. Pork temporarily overtook poultry as the most consumed animal protein. On the planet. However, Piteski said the current model of governments heavily compensating farmers for livestock losses after virus outbreaks is financially unsustainable, and that AI-driven technologies that could prevent these infections in the first place will require even more support. They argue that more investment needs to be directed. .
“We are working on predictive models using a combination of weather radar, satellite imagery, and machine learning to understand how waterfowl behavior is changing around different farms,” says Pitesky. “We use this information to understand which of his 50,000 to 60,000 commercial poultry facilities in the United States are most at risk and protect all the birds within those facilities. We can develop strategies to do so.”
Technology could eventually provide a path to eliminating the virus from commercial poultry. In October, a team of British researchers published their findings in a journal. nature communications We have demonstrated that it is possible to make chickens resistant to avian influenza using the gene editing tool Crispr. This was done by editing the genes that make the chicken proteins ANP32A, ANP32B, and ANP32E, which the virus uses to access chicken cells.
Crispr can make livestock resistant to other infectious diseases such as avian leukemia, a cancer-causing viral disease, and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, which causes widespread economic losses on pig farms. It has been shown that it can be done.
“Currently available methods include the use of strict farm biosecurity, vaccination of poultry in some countries, and significant depopulation of infected or exposed flocks,” said the study's principal investigator, Alewo Idoko Ako from the University of Bristol says: nature communications study. “While these methods have been partially successful, so far they have not been able to stop recurrent outbreaks of avian influenza around the world. Gene editing in chickens to introduce disease resistance should be considered as an additional tool to prevent or limit the spread of avian influenza.”
Piteski called the paper “very interesting,” but noted that consumption of gene-edited chicken would need to be widely accepted by the public to become commercially viable. “I think there's a lot of promise with these technological solutions, but the overriding problem, especially in the United States, is the sentiment towards genetically modified chickens,” he says.
For now, the best way to bring bird flu under control is to more actively monitor animal populations around the world to understand where and how the H5N1 virus is spreading, Iqbal said. says Mr.
Regarding the situation in the United States, he said, “Surveillance systems are improving, and any infections that appear to be unusual are thoroughly investigated.'' “This has helped us identify unusual outbreaks, such as infections in goats and cattle.” But more research is needed to detect the virus in animals that don't show signs of disease. he says.
