Scots scientists breed bug-resistant chickens

By Jenny Fyall
Published on 15/02/2012 12:08

SCOTTISH scientists are hoping to breed chickens resistant to a bug responsible for the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK.

The scientists from the Roslin Institute have £1.3million funding for the project to try to eliminate the bug from the food chain.

Campylobacter costs the UK economy £600million a year and causes hundreds of thousands of cases of food poisoning.

The scientists will spend the next three years trying to map the genes responsible for resistance to the bacteria.

If successful, they think they could breed chickens free from Campylobacter, which would prevent it being passed on to humans.

The research is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and poultry-breeding company Aviagen.

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