Scientists working at creating allergy-free eggs

AN allergy-free egg being developed in Geelong is set to make life easier for parents of anaphylactic children around the globe and save many lives.

World-first research by Deakin University in collaboration with Geelong's CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory and Poultry Co-operative Research Centre has delivered a means of "switching off" the allergenic component of protein in egg white, and re-introducing it in a non-allergenic form.

The research aims to produce allergy-free eggs for use in food consumption and the production of common vaccines, which can cause severe allergic reactions, such as those for flu.

Associate professor Cenk Suphioglu from Deakin's School of Life and Environmental Sciences yesterday said the research was expected to take three years to complete.

It was possible allergy-free vaccines could be available within five years and allergy-free eggs could be available in supermarkets in between five to 10 years, he said.

AAHL project leader and father of an anaphylactic child, adjunct professor Tim Doran, said the ground-breaking research had the potential to substantially improve the lives of thousands of families who lived in fear of their children consuming egg white and suffering potentially fatal anaphylactic shock as a result.

"The effect of this type of allergy on the whole family is immense," he said. "Because in many cases all food has to be prepared in the home as you can't guarantee that food purchased outside the home won't have traces of egg white.

We recently did a long-haul flight with the family and had to prepare all meals to take on the plane."

Professor Suphioglu said new parents were understandably extremely nervous about serving eggs to their babies for the first time, with anecdotal evidence suggesting some were giving their children their first taste of egg in hospital car parks in case of an allergic reaction.

Of the 40 proteins in egg white, there are four major allergens.

The new research systematically switch off the allergens in all four, creating a hypoallergenic egg that can then produce chickens, which lay allergy-free eggs.

Professor Doran said it was the proteins in the egg that were being modified as opposed to the genes or DNA of the chickens using RNAi technology that had previously been used by the CSIRO to modify important traits in crops.

"We are not producing genetically modified chickens as part of this research, we are simply modifying the proteins within the egg whites to produce chickens which lay allergy-free eggs," he said.

Professor Suphioglu described the research as "a completely novel approach".

While previous egg-allergy research had cloned egg white allergen genes, no one had gone as far as to make the proteins non-allergenic, he said.