Super chickens: beating bird flu.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Citings - Brief article

BEATING BIRD FLU is tricky. Since the disease strains mutate unpredictably every year, developing annual vaccines can be a hit-or-miss process. And since the birds live in closely packed environments, transmission can be swift and deadly to large populations.

A study reported in the January 14 edition of Science suggests a solution. A team of researchers including Laurence Tiley at the University of Cambridge has found a way to stop bird flu from spreading by altering chickens' RNA. (The technique...