Transgenic Chickens Curb Bird Flu

Researchers have made genetically modified chickens that can't infect other birds with bird flu. The H5N1 strain of influenza — which raged through southeast Asia a decade ago and has killed hundreds of people to date — remains a problem in some developing countries, where it is endemic.The birds carry a genetic tweak that diverts an enzyme crucial for transmitting the H5N1 strain. Although they die of the disease within days, the molecular decoy somehow impedes the virus from infecting others. The findings are published today in Science.Read more at...Nature, January 2011.