this is bbc news. the headlines: prosecutors in michigan have charged the parents of a teenager, accused of murdering four students at his high school. james and jennifer crumbley have also been charged with manslaughter. theirson, ethan, carried out the mass shooting with a semiautomatic pistol bought by his father. the first data on the omicron variant of covid suggests vaccines are less effective at stopping it spreading. scientists in south africa have reported a surge in the number of people being reinfected. it s the first real world evidence indicating the new variant may evade immune defences. a team of british scientists have used gene editing technology to create female only and male only litters of mice. the technique could prevent the destruction of hundreds of thousands of unwanted mammels used in research, mammals used in research, and millions of male chickens culled because they don t lay eggs.
wrong sex, they usually get destroyed when they cannot be of any economic value. this could prevent the purpose of animals that are destined to be quite quickly destroyed and i think that is a good thing. in the repository were focusing on chickens and eggs. just how significant this be commercially into the future? if it works, if it works in other animals and even more importantly if it is proven to be safe because before this is used we need to go through several generations of animals to make sure it does not have any ill effects on the chink is or the calves, the piglets that get on, if it works, i think it could have significant effects and the industries in making it more efficient towards derek, beef, pork and for chickens and eggs as well as perhaps sheep and goats. eggs as well as perhaps sheep and goats-
with the omicron strain but they do seem to make its effects far less serious. scientists in britain have used gene editing technology to create female only and male only litters of mice. they say their technique could eventually be applied to chickens to ensure that only egg producing females are hatched. our science correspondent pallab ghosh reports. half of these chicks are useless to the farming industry because they re male and don t lay eggs so they have to be killed. that problem could be solved thanks to a breakthrough that enables scientists to reprogramme animals to produce only females. some 6 to 7 billion male layer chicks are killed every year shortly after birth at a point when they have a nervous system and are capable of suffering. we would like to be able to move to a system where those same eggs are laid but instead never hatch. scientists at the francis crick institute in london have found
of system for sexual determination but they have a plausible weight to work with chickens as well. plausible weight to work with chickens as well. that has been a lot of focus chickens as well. that has been a lot of focus on chickens as well. that has been a lot of focus on animal- a lot of focus on animal welfare and the potential of this to help in this regard. how may that come about? there are a number how may that come about? there are a number of how may that come about? there are a number of situations - are a number of situations where farmers want only one sex of an animal where farmers want only one sex ofan animal oran where farmers want only one sex of an animal or an overwhelming majority. bulls for example are not useful in very cattle because they do not give milk. with laying chickens, again, the male chickens will never lay eggs so they are not interesting for people flapping eggs. farming for eggs. if the infants are born into the
pallab ghosh, bbc news. hank greely is stanford university professor of law and director of the center for law and the biosciences. he joins us from california. i ll be in the early stages of this research or will be set applied in practice soon? we are into the applied in practice soon? - are into the early stages. this is a very clever piece of work and i was very impressed with that but you have to remember almost every biological research, never believe it until someone else replicates it and they run a species specific variation. just because it can be done in mice does not mean it can be done in cattle or pigs. i do not see any good reasons it cannot be but biology often surprises us. chickens have a different kind