Recovery of reproductive stem cells from developing hens offers method of preserving rare or valuable chicken types.
Researchers have developed an efficient method of preserving rare breeds of poultry.
Their method involves harvesting reproductive cells from developing chicken eggs of key breeds, and storing these for future fertilisation.
The technique offers a way to safeguard rare breeds of chickens, or those with useful characteristics, for example resistance to disease or changing climates.
It will also reduce the number of birds needed for research.
An international team of scientists, involving researchers from the Centre for Tropical Genetics and Health (CTLGH) and the Roslin Institute, developed a process of recovering reproductive stem cells – the precursors of egg cells – from the frozen tissues of a hen egg.
These can be recovered at a stage of egg development when these cells are abundant, and stored in optimum conditions, enabling a large number to be maintained for storage and future use.
These cells can be cultured many years later then introduced into gene-edited surrogate chickens, which do not produce their own egg cells, but can carry and lay eggs of other breeds.
The method improves on previous techniques that involved freezing egg cells at a later stage of development, which requires a large number of hens to produce good quality eggs or culturing cells before freezing which requires expensive laboratory equipment.
It is enabled by the recent development of effective materials – freezing solution – in which the cells can be stored.
The process may safeguard indigenous breeds in tropical regions, such as parts of Africa, from the effects of climate change, urbanisation and diseases.
The team also involved the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO).
Their study was published in Poultry Science. It was supported by NC3R and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Professor Mike McGrew of the Roslin Institute and CTLGH, who led the research, said:
“This advance will make it easier and less expensive than before to retain indigenous chickens that have valuable genetic traits.”
“The method may also be applicable to other bird species, potentially creating a valuable tool with which to preserve endangered birds.”
Dr Christian Tiambo, of ILRI and CTLGH, said: “We need to work on the freezing techniques to make it simpler and more accessible to less developed countries.
“The Roslin Institute effort in developing and availing the sterile surrogate chicken technology is a great contribution to African chicken conservation and development.”
