Poultry genetics research aims to combat avian influenza resilience

A $300,000 project backed by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research will explore how poultry genetics can enhance resilience against avian flu, potentially reducing losses in the US poultry industry.

A new research project backed by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research will examine whether poultry genetics can help blunt the damage caused by avian influenza, a disease that continues to disrupt production and raise costs across the US poultry sector.

According to the announcement reported by Feedstuffs, the $300,000 award under FFAR’s Rapid Outcomes from Agricultural Research programme will support work by Iowa State University and Australia’s CSIRO to identify genes that influence birds’ response to H5N1 and H7N9 infection. The project is being led by Joaquín Caceres, an assistant professor at Iowa State’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

The scientific aim is not simply to understand why some birds become sicker than others, but to map the host pathways that may determine resilience or resistance. That distinction matters. Some animals may still become infected yet limit disease severity and recover faster, while others may better block viral entry or replication altogether.

Iowa State and CSIRO have both been studying avian influenza biology for years. Their broader work, together with previous poultry genetics studies, suggests that genomic selection and, in time, gene-editing approaches could complement biosecurity and vaccination. For now, those tools remain experimental, but the long-term commercial appeal is clear: fewer losses, lower shedding and more robust flocks.