Scientists produce chickens that lay `medicinal' eggs

Taiwanese scientists have developed a process to make chickens lay eggs which contain antigens to combat various diseases in humans and domesticated animals.

Researchers at an animal-product laboratory in Hsinhua (新化鎮), Tainan County, have spent two years developing the "medical eggs."

The achievement will be put on display at Bio Taiwan 2005, an annual international biotech expo, which opens on Friday at the Taipei World Trade Center and runs through Monday.

Liu Jui-cheng (劉瑞珍), a researcher at the laboratory, told reporters yesterday that the research process involved injecting pathogens into the bodies of Leghorn chickens to make them produce antigens, known as "yolk IgG, " or "IgY" for short.

The antibodies find their way into treated chickens' egg yolks, in amounts varying between 2 percent and 10 percent of the yolk.

She said that researchers have so far only injected one pathogen at a time into the chickens.

The bacteria and viruses that have been used include streptococcus, echerichia coli, klebsiella pneumoniae and H. pylori bacteria. When the eggs are consumed by humans or domesticated animals, the antigens in the yolk will help the immune system neutralize specific bacteria and viruses that have invaded the body.

These medical eggs will eventually be available on the market and will have to be consumed raw, because cooking the eggs will destroy the antigens, Liu said.