CRISPR chickens hint at what’s next for the gene-modified food chain

A historic pandemic continues to rage, and it isn’t getting the attention it deserves given the virus’s toll. The outbreak in this case isn’t COVID-19, but a vicious iteration of the avian flu. But there’s early evidence that the groundbreaking science of CRISPR gene-editing could offer a solution—through genetically-modified chickens. 

The current avian flu outbreak is especially nasty. It’s killed more than 59 million chickens across 47 U.S. states, spread to other animals (and could theoretically spread to humans), and wrought havoc on the national food supply chain, sending egg prices soaring earlier this year. The situation is so dire that the Biden administration considered a mass vaccination campaign for our feathered friends. 

The life sciences industry has also taken note. In fact, the chicken coop got a glimmer of hope last week when scientists announced an early-stage study published in the journal Nature that they had successfully used CRISPR gene-editing that could birth chickens which defy—or at least strut past—certain avian flu strains with targeted genetic tweaks.  

Of course, there are some caveats in the latest CRISPR study. For starters, poultry (like humans) are susceptible to breakthrough infections, and exposure to high levels of the virus can potentially break past even gene-edited defenses, in turn letting the virus mutate further. But this crisis and its CRISPR-powered response is a telling case study in a much larger story: What some argue is an existential need for a gene-altered food chain. 

GMOs, and genetic modification in general, have long been a fraught topic driven by safety and ecological concerns such as toxic runoff from pesticide-resistant crops, or uncertainty surrounding GMOs’ long-term consequences on health and the ecosystems should gene-altered animals cross-breed with wild livestock. Those are legitimate concerns voiced by many scientists and agriculturalists who urge diligence and caution in how industry uses this biotechnology.

But public opinion polling paints a murky and contradictory picture. Consider: 48% of the public across 20 major nations including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, India, Australia, and Russia think food with genetically-modified ingredients is unsafe to eat while just 13% believe in their safety, according to a 2020 Pew Research survey. A whopping 37% say they don’t know enough about genetic modification in food to have an opinion. 

But tinkering with agriculture and livestock isn’t a new preservation tactic. Just look to Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, whose 1960s-era agricultural science fostered new, sustainable wheat crops that put bread on the table for millions at risk of famine. In a bit of irony, massive swaths of GMO skeptics are already eating the products they think are unsafe given the reality that farming and livestock industries have embraced them for the economic boost more resilient food stuffs provide. In fact, 26% of the global 2019 population, nearly 2 billion people across 29 major counties, reaped benefits from biotechnology-bolstered food, according to a report from the nonprofit International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), through improvements in “food security, sustainability, climate change mitigation, and upliftment in the lives of up to 17 million biotech farmers and their families worldwide.”

There are dozens of recent examples that highlight both the tangible and aspirational impact of gene-editing in the food supply chain, from FDA-approved salmon which grow twice as fast as their progenitors (and have been on the U.S. market since 2015), to CRISPR gene-edited pigs developed by Chinese scientists in 2018 resistant to deadly viral infections, and biofortified crops such as Golden Rice.

The latter provides a focused lens into the benefits GMOs can provide when used responsibly and strategically for serious human needs—and of the sociopolitical and logistical constraints which blunt their impact and block access to gene-modified foods for millions of people who would benefit most. Golden Rice is a 20-year-old beta-carotene infused crop specifically developed to fight malnutrition and vitamin A deficiencies which blind somewhere between 250,000 to 500,000 children annually—and kill half the kids who go blind within a year after that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The fact that this modified crop still struggles to reach its target market isn’t ideal given that the world will need to produce at least 50% (if not more) food and energy than it does today by 2030 to sustain the global population. In total population terms, the food supply chain will need to support approximately 8.5 billion people in 2030, 9.2 billion by 2040, and 9.7 billion by 2040, according to United Nations projections.

The global populace may be wary of genetic modification in what they eat, but the CRISPR chickens study demonstrates how important gene-modified foods could become in ensuring that the food chain can withstand environmental, pathogenic, and disease threats we have yet to encounter.