Poultry Gen
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
MANHEIM (Lancaster Co.)
It’ll take more than pushing a
few buttons to achieve desired
traits in poultry through genetic
selection.
According to an lowa State
poultry expert, traits important
to the poultry breeding industry
are controlled by many different
genes. Finding all of them and
discovering how they interact
will lay the groundwork for an
improved bird, according to
Susan J. Lament.
Lament, professor of animal
science at lowa State University
in Ames, lowa, spoke to about
three dozen poultry producers
and agri-industry representatives
Monday afternoon. She spoke at
the Penn State-sponsored Poul
try Management and Health
Seminar at Kreider’s Restaurant.
Finding those traits requires
studying “dozens of genes,” said
Lament. To bring the genes nec
essary into commercial lines will
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etic Selection
require more research
caution.
Selecting for those traits could
be economically feasible, Lamont
said, if they lower the cost of
what you’re replacing. But se
lecting for certain genes may re
quire giving up other genes a
complex tradeoff.
Already, one company is mak
ing use of technology to de
termine the gender of eggs with
100 percent accuracy. Embrex, of
Raleigh, N.C., utilized funding
from the USD A small business
innovative grant to sort eggs by
gender.
The technology is “sound,”
Lamont noted, “and can be de
veloped in the company.”
Lamont quoted Catherine
Ricks, vice president of Embrex
research and development. “In
laboratory trials,” according to
Ricks, “we have determined the
gender in a series of eggs with
100 percent accuracy.”
The company noted it plans to
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use the grant money to develop a
“novel device used to sort avian
eggs by gender,” Lamont noted.
Lamont questioned that to
look at what genetics can do for
poultry lines and bird health, sce
narios have to be examined.
‘What if transgenic poultry were
widely accepted?” she said.
“What if sexing embryos was a
routine practice? And what if the
use of antibiotics in poultry was
banned?”
and
Those are issues the industry
must face.
Transgenic poultry could
someday be a routine method of
using hens as “bioreactors,” since
eggs are a very efficient producer
of proteins.
But the industry must find a
way to prove how important to
human medicine the use of re
combinant technology can be.
Already, several companies
are looking into the many ways
genes can be manipulated to not
only produce a better bird, but to
fight poultry disease and even
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Poultry genetic research and public perception were
highlights of a presentation by Susan J. Lamont, profes
sor of animal science at lowa State University, center.
From left, Paul Patterson, Penn State associate professor
of poultry science; Lamont; and Bob Elkin, Penn State
Poultry Science department head.
improve human health. Compa
nies include Avigenics, CIMA,
OviGen, Ovo Biosciences,
TranXenoGen, Vivalis, and oth
ers.
Some are looking into produc
ing birds with specific disease-re
sistant capabilities. Lament
noted.
However, the “holdups” in
these developments include:
• Regulatory (genetically
modified organism) issues, prom
inent in the public’s perception.
Many technology-based compa
nies didn’t talk about the benefits
of genetically modified products
before they were released. The
products must be shown to be
completely “risk-free,” said La
ment, even though most prod
ucts aren’t.
• Technical development is
sues need to be overcome.
• Knowledge of genes and ge
netic mechanisms in poultry
needs to be fully understood.
A benefit to sexing the em
bryos to identify the gender of
the egg at the embryonic level
could have an impact. Already,
three-quarters of a billion male
layer chicks are killed annually.
The sexing could cut these num
bers dramatically.
If sexing could be done, then
could actual gender alteration be
far behind? Lamont noted there
were no “real success stories
yet,” but the technology to either
kill off an unapproved gender or
change all the embryos to the de
sired sex could be possible.
“These things might not be
that far off,” she said.
Control of food pathogens
using genetics to enhance vaccine
efficiency, or creating bird genet
ic resistance to disease, are at the
forefront of research.
Studies at lowa and other uni
versities are looking into ways to
identify Salmonella enteritidis
(SE) and other disease resistance
in birds. Lamont provided detail
on how DNA markers, or “mi
crosateliites,” are used and the
processes that scientists incorpo
rate in genetic selection.
Some research to identify anti
biotic response levels was under
taken using leghorns, Spanish
birds, and Fayoumis in the labo
ratory.
Whatever the scientists come
up with, the industry must be
cautious to observe how sire
traits can effect the outcome of
genetic selection.
Importantly, the industry
must move cautiously. They
must bring the advances through
“with information about why
they’re valuable,” said Lamont.
Public perception is critical.
And sometimes the public “won’t
accept it very graciously,” La
mont said.