Transgenic chickens--methods and potential applications.

The development of techniques for the genetic manipulation of poultry has lagged behind the technology available in mammalian systems, although several different approaches are being taken to overcome the problems associated with the manipulation of avian embryos. Several methods being developed for generating transgenic chickens are giving promising results, and the production of transgenic chickens by DNA microinjection has recently been demonstrated. Exploitation of this technology, in both basic and applied research, is now a possibility, and many applications of transgenic technology to poultry breeding and novel uses of transgenic chickens have been suggested.