In this wide-ranging radio conversation, Mark Hahn and I discuss the spectrum of genetic modification, including the use of CRISPR technology to enhance the resistance of bird flocks, such as chickens and turkeys, against diseases like Avian Influenza.
Avian Influenza
Rembrandt Foods is closed … again. It has sent their employees home and is sitting idle as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) claims the lives of over 5 million laying hens. This Iowa liquid egg producer also shut down in 2015, when waterfowl migrating up the Mississippi flyway brought the HPAI strain to their barns and flocks.
Since late 2003, birds in over a dozen nations in Asia and at least seven nations in Europe have been struck by H5N1 "avian influenza" or "bird flu." Since 2003, there have been 175 confirmed cases of H5N1 transmission from birds to humans in Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Turkey, Iraq, and Vietnam. This paper explains how avian influenza is transmitted, whether your annual flu shot will protect you, and how antiviral drugs for bird flu work.