Genetically Modified Birds
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Fig.8.A Modified Turkey. Source: [5].
4.3. Transgenic Birds For Improved Egg And Meat Production
Biotech Companies are presently seeking to Bridge the Gap Between Egg Laying and Meat Production
in Chickens. Traditional breeding techniques are starting to hit some limits. For instance, when breeders select
birds that grow fatter faster, these birds tend to be duds at laying eggs. But what if there was a way to have the
best of both worlds, to create a breed that reached market weight in record time, but also had a high egg-laying
potential, so breeders could quickly supply farmers with billions of these new super-birds.
India has developed a transgenic chicken variety that is fleshier than normal breeds, and can reportedly
also be used in the treatment of diseases. This breakthrough research could help boost production in a country
where the annual domestic consumption of poultry and poultry products is worth more than 300 billion rupees
(US$6.8 billion.)The tool used to genetically modify the chicken was developed by a team of 3 scientists at the
Hyderabad-based Project Directorate on Poultry after 2 years of research using
a gene of jellyfish and
spermatozoa of a specific variety of chicken from the institute. Bhattacharya, T.K., the head scientist said it is
ready for commercial use. These chickens can enhance productivity and give a huge quantity of flesh. Also, the
transgenic birds can produce up to 300 eggs over 72 weeks, which is more than
twice the number of eggs
produced by normal varieties of chickens. The institute hatched 263 chicks in its study group, of which 16 were
found to be transgenic. The efficiency of the institute's method of producing transgenic varieties is about 6
percent.
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