Science News Roundup: Scientists create gene-edited animals as 'surrogate sires' to boost food production; Flu outbreaks may be linked to COVID-19 and more

The animals, created for the first time by researchers in the United States and Britain using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9, could be used as "surrogate sires", essentially sterile blank slates that could then be transplanted with stem cells that produce the desired sperm, the scientists said.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Scientists create gene-edited animals as 'surrogate sires' to boost food production

Scientists have created gene-edited pigs, goats and cattle to produce sperm with traits such as disease resistance and higher meat quality in what they say is a step towards genetically enhancing livestock to improve food production. The animals, created for the first time by researchers in the United States and Britain using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9, could be used as "surrogate sires", essentially sterile blank slates that could then be transplanted with stem cells that produce the desired sperm, the scientists said.

Flu outbreaks may be linked to COVID-19; arthritis drug benefit seen

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Flu may be linked with coronavirus spread Potential sign of alien life detected on inhospitable Venus

Scientists said on Monday they have detected in the harshly acidic clouds of Venus a gas called phosphine that indicates microbes may inhabit Earth's inhospitable neighbor, a tantalizing sign of potential life beyond Earth. The researchers did not discover actual life forms, but noted that on Earth phosphine is produced by bacteria thriving in oxygen-starved environments. The international scientific team first spotted the phosphine using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and confirmed it using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile.

(With inputs from agencies.)