Silk can not only make clothes but also vaccine against chicken gizzards

Silk can not only make clothes, but also can be used to produce vaccines against pigs and chickens. Yesterday, at the 2nd International Symposium on Silkworm Functional Genomics and the Modern Silk Road, the head of the Key Laboratory of Sericulture, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, disclosed to Zhong Zhonghuai the news.

In 2009, Southwest University demonstrated the world’s first transgenic silk clothing: the green fluorescent protein was transferred to the silkworm. The silk spit out of the silkworm was green and emitted fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet light.

This transgenic silk clothing, after washing and softening by modern clothing techniques, will become as delicate as traditional silk, will not fade, and will not easily wrinkle and deform.

Imagine how many people's eyes will be focused on wearing such shiny clothes and attending various occasions. Therefore, the public is very concerned about when such genetically modified fabrics will be marketed.

Yesterday, explained to Zhong Huaihua that the scope of the intermediate experiment has been expanded, but it is really necessary to wait for a period of time for the clothing to be made into the market.

When Zhong Zhonghuai was interviewed by the media yesterday, he also disclosed that using genetically modified silkworms, the silk spit may prevent pigs from picking up chicken gizzards.

Explain to Zhong Huai that the gene for producing the vaccine is transferred to the silkworm, and the silkworm has this protein. Silkworms spit out of silkworms and have this protein.

"If this protein is active, it will be able to resist diseases such as swine fever and chicken gizzards." Xiang Zhonghuai said that the stage of this study is to see if the protein is active and how effective it is.

Zhong Zhonghuai also disclosed that the phytase was transferred to the silkworm and the vomited silk contained phytase and was highly active. Phytase can promote the absorption of phosphorus in feed.

"The growth of animals requires phosphorus, but the rate of absorption is not high." explained to Zhong Huai, silkworms and silkworm cocoons that are spit from silkworms contain phytase, which is used as feed to increase the absorption of phosphorus in feed. , but also reduce environmental pollution.