As a recent example of what could follow, Pitesky points to the repeated outbreaks of African swine fever in various Asian countries over the last decade, which decimated the pig farming industry to such an extent that pork was briefly usurped by poultry as the most commonly consumed animal protein the planet. However, Pitesky argues that the current model, in which governments provide large compensation to farmers for their livestock losses as a result of a virus outbreak, is financially unsustainable and that more investment needs to be directed towards AI-driven technologies that can prevent these infections in the first place.
“I work on predictive models that use a combination of weather radar, satellite imagery and machine learning to understand how waterfowl behavior changes across different farms,” says Pitesky. “We can use this information to understand which of the 50,000 to 60,000 commercial poultry operations in the U.S. are most at risk and develop strategies to protect all birds on those operations.”
The technology could ultimately provide a path to eliminating the virus in commercial poultry. In October, a team of researchers from Great Britain published a study in the journal Nature communication This shows that it is possible to use the gene editing tool Crispr to make chickens resistant to bird flu. This was done by editing genes that, in chickens, make the proteins ANP32A, ANP32B and ANP32E, which the virus uses to gain access to chicken cells.
Crispr has been shown to be able to make livestock resistant to other infections such as the cancer-causing viral disease fowl leukosis and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, which are responsible for widespread economic losses in pig farms.
“The methods currently available are the use of strict on-farm biosecurity, poultry vaccinations in some countries and massive depopulation of infected or exposed chicken flocks,” says Alewo Idoko-Akoh of the University of Bristol, the lead researcher on the topic Nature communication Study. “These methods have been partially successful, but have so far failed to stop recurring bird flu outbreaks around the world. Gene editing of chickens to introduce disease resistance should be considered as an additional tool to prevent or limit the spread of avian influenza.”
Pitesky described the paper as “really interesting” but noted that there would need to be broad public acceptance of eating genetically modified chickens for it to become commercially viable. “I think these technological solutions have great potential, but the problem is mainly the sentiment against genetically modified chickens, particularly in the United States,” he says.
Iqbal says the best chance of keeping bird flu under control for now is to more actively monitor animal populations around the world to understand how and where H5N1 is spreading.
“The surveillance system has been improved and any infection that appears unusual is thoroughly investigated,” he says of the situation in the United States. “This has helped identify unusual outbreaks, such as infections in goats and cattle.” But he says much more work is needed to detect the virus in animals that show no signs of illness.