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Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/healt...984/story.html
Duck gene tips off bird flu, Canadian researchers find
By Phil Dukarsky, Canwest News ServiceMarch 31, 2010 7:02 PM
Researchers have discovered a gene in ducks that helps detect influenza and potentially can prevent the spread of the virus in chickens and perhaps to humans.
Katharine Magor, an associate professor of biology at the University of Alberta, led a team that discovered a gene called RIG-I (retinoic acid inducible gene ? I) in ducks.
This gene detects when a virus begins to spread in ducks and initiates the bird's immune response. The gene does not exist in chickens raised for the table and leaves them at risk.
"We have shown that ducks have RIG-I, and chickens seem not to," Magor said in an e-mail. "If we put RIG-I back into chicken cells, it works, so it would likely improve the chickens' response to influenza if we put the gene into them..."
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/healt...#ixzz0jopdXA0o
Duck gene tips off bird flu, Canadian researchers find
By Phil Dukarsky, Canwest News ServiceMarch 31, 2010 7:02 PM
Researchers have discovered a gene in ducks that helps detect influenza and potentially can prevent the spread of the virus in chickens and perhaps to humans.
Katharine Magor, an associate professor of biology at the University of Alberta, led a team that discovered a gene called RIG-I (retinoic acid inducible gene ? I) in ducks.
This gene detects when a virus begins to spread in ducks and initiates the bird's immune response. The gene does not exist in chickens raised for the table and leaves them at risk.
"We have shown that ducks have RIG-I, and chickens seem not to," Magor said in an e-mail. "If we put RIG-I back into chicken cells, it works, so it would likely improve the chickens' response to influenza if we put the gene into them..."
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/healt...#ixzz0jopdXA0o