National Poultry Newspaper

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Vol 5. No. 8 August 2022 National Poultry Newspaper PO Box 162 Wynnum 4178 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Email ben@collins.media
Breeding virus- resistant poultry
The author was invited to speak in Dubai about the chal- The author’s presentation focused on the gut brain axis and explor- lenges the poultry industry faces in terms of gut health. ing how human-based research could be mirrored in chickens.
Prime poultry industry events
THIS month I have the pleasure of returning to overseas travel.
the App Store, so get in touch if you are keen to see what it is all about.
Also, we have recently employed Mohsan Javed as a new trainer.
I was invited to speak in Dubai about the chal- lenges our industry faces in terms of gut health and some of the novel approaches we may be able to employ to allevi- ate them.
We also have subsidised options for educational institutions and Poultry Hub Australia members.
Mohsan has strong ex- perience in the chicken meat industry and has held training positions in the past.
This presentation gave me the opportunity to fo- cus on the gut brain axis and explore how what has been already researched in humans could be mir- rored in chickens.
This month, our PHA Job Ready training has kicked off again in Tam- worth.
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome him and I look forward to sharing the outcomes of our training program over the coming months.
There was a high level of engagement at the meeting and a great op-
Despite the challenges of domestic flight cancel- lations, it was well worth the effort and I look for- ward to meeting more people at the upcoming
I will be presenting two papers, including the ben- efits of our Virtual Real- ity Chicken.
It’s a great opportunity to showcase what the Australian poultry indus- try does, and it also pro- vides a great opportunity to dispel myths too.
We are looking forward to catching up with you in person finally – sharing our great achievements and also exchanging new ideas for the future of the industry.
by TAMSYN CROWLEY Director
portunity to network in person.
World Poultry Congress in Paris.
The training has been quite popular despite the current low unemploy- ment rate.
Ideas Exchange 2022 has been booked in for mid-October in Mel- bourne
PHA’s Virtual Reality Chicken is now available for purchase on the App Store.
Registration for the conference is by invita- tion only, so if you are interested in attending or want to find out more, contact us at poultry- hub@une.edu.au
The VR Chicken is now available for purchase on
Ideas Exchange is a great avenue for in- dustry personnel and researchers to come together to develop re- lationships and collabo- rations that benefit the entire industry.
POULTRY could be bred to resist damaging viral infections, following a Roslin Institute study of genes linked to chicken immunity, according to an article published on the institute’s website.
for variations in the genes linked to production of im- mune proteins, known as interferons, and other as- sociated molecules.
A study of different types of chickens – known to be either more resistant or more susceptible to com- mon poultry viruses – has uncovered dozens of varia- tions in genes with a central role in the chicken immune response to infection.
The team sought to com- pare their findings with a standard reference genome for chickens to determine the effect caused by vari- ations in these regions of DNA and how they might be associated with each bird’s response to infection.
The findings may point to genetic variations that determine birds’ responses to infection, to help breed poultry that are resistant to disease.
In all, their analysis high- lighted 60 genetic varia- tions that are likely to in- fluence resistance or sus- ceptibility to one of the four infections.
Researchers analysed DNA from chickens that have been found to be natu- rally more resilient or prone to avian influenza, Marek’s disease, infectious bursal disease or infectious bron- chitis virus, all of which are costly viruses for the poultry industry.
Further research could in- volve testing the impact of these DNA variations on chicken cells and exposing these to each of the four viruses in the laboratory to better understand the mech- anisms involved.
The study’s lead author Joshua Mountford said, “Viral infections are a sig- nificant challenge for the poultry industry as well as impacting on animal wel- fare.”
Roslin Institute genome scientist Dr Jacqueline Smith said, “Our study is a good first step to under- stand the genetic factors in- fluencing innate immunity to a range of viral infections in poultry.”
“Determining genetic factors that enable birds to present a robust resistance to infection could deliver a host of benefits.”
“The variants we have discovered merit further investigation and could be valuable in breeding chick- ens resistant to disease.”
Computer analysis looked
This could help determine which genetic variations could be bred into chickens to enable the birds to resist viral infection.
Roslin Institute genome scientist Dr Jacqueline Smith.
This may also have rel- evance for immunity in people, as the human im- mune system has similar processes to those inves- tigated in this study, and viruses such as avian flu also have the potential to transmit to humans.
The discovery could also inform research into drug design or vaccine improve- ment to protect poultry against infection.
The study was published in Animal Genetics.
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