UK - Researchers have made an advance in the fight against a deadly virus that affects pigs.The team used advanced genetic techniques to produce pigs that are potentially resilient to African Swine Fever – a highly contagious disease that kills up to two-thirds of infected animals.The new pigs carry a version of a gene that is usually found in warthogs and bush pigs, which researchers believe may stop them from becoming ill from the infection.African Swine Fever is spread by ticks. When standard farmed pigs are infected, they quickly become ill and die, but warthogs and bush pigs show no disease symptoms when infected.The research is focused on one of the pig genes associated with African Swine Fever Virus infection called RELA. The gene causes the immune system to overreact with devastating effects.
英国研究学者已经对解决猪的致命病毒取得了发展。这个研究团队采用先进的基因技术,繁殖对非洲猪瘟(African Swine Fever)有潜在恢重能力的仔猪。非洲猪瘟是一种高度传染的疾病,能杀死三分之二被感染动物。新培育的猪携带疣猪(一种非洲野猪)和薮猪(非洲灌丛野猪)的基因版本,研究人员信服它们的基因能够阻挠猪受到感染。非洲猪疫由扁虱传播。正常养殖的猪被感染后,很快就会生病和死亡,但是疣猪和薮猪被感染后没有表现出任何疾病症状。研究的重点是与非洲猪瘟感染有关的一个基因,称为RELA。这个基因会让免疫系统过度反应,引起劫难性后果。