Duck Genome to Help Fight Bird Flu

An international team of researchers has now sequenced the genome of a duck. The genome study is expected to help in the fight against avian influenza or "bird flu".

Ducks are natural hosts of the influenza A viruses (including H5N1), but show no symptoms of an infection and so act as "silent carriers" of the disease. The H5N1 virus subtype is a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus that first infected humans in 1997. Now, the latest H7N9 bird flu strain has killed 36 people and has caused a loss of over $6 billion to China's economy.

Researchers from China Agricultural University, BGI, University of Edinburgh and their colleagues in other institutes have uncovered key mechanisms between the host and virus. The study team sequenced the genome of a 10-week-old female Beijing duck.

This is the first time that researchers have sequenced the genome of a waterfowl-duck. According to the team, ducks have fewer immunity-related genes when compared with mammals. Also, ducks have certain novel genes that aren't present chickens or turkeys.

For the study, researchers infected ducks with avian influenza H5N1 viruses that were either weak or strong. The team then looked for specific gene expression in the lungs of the ducks that were responding to this infection.

"This study provides very important data to better understand the interaction between the host and the avian influenza. Scientists will be able to explore more deeply the mechanisms on the spread and infection of avian influenza," said Jianwen Li, project manager from BGI, according to a news release.

The study is published in the journal Nature Genetics.