Cryo-storing research lines of chicken to eliminate breeding and save genetic resources

Why did we fund this project?

This award aims to reduce the number of chickens maintained as permanent breeding flocks for research by optimising cryopreservation procedures for the most commonly used breeds at the Roslin Institute.

Cryopreservation is used to preserve samples of cells and tissue at low temperatures, allowing long-term preservation. In mammalian research, embryos and germ cells can be cryopreserved maintaining the genetics of the model and avoiding the need to continually maintain the animals “on the shelf” when they are currently not required for experimental purposes. However, these cryopreservation methods do not work for avian reproductive cells so flocks of chickens must be raised and maintained indefinitely to provide research animals. Dr Mike McGrew has developed a new technology where reproductive cells from chickens can be frozen and transferred into eggs from a sterile chicken line. Chickens hatched using this protocol lay eggs of the transferred chicken breed.

With NC3Rs funding, Mike will optimise cryopreservation for three research chicken breeds using the new protocol by transferring multiple genotypes into sterile eggs. He will then confirm the genotype transmission rate and determine the number of birds needed for a genetically diverse flock to be reconstituted from frozen material. The flock’s health and virility will be validated and the first research poultry biobank created.

• BBSRC Impact Showcase 2023: Safeguarding the genetic biodiversity of chickens
• The Roslin Institute news item: Low-cost freezing method to safeguard indigenous poultry