A surge of highly pathogenic avian influenza cases in dairy cattle and the first death of a person from the virus have refocused attention on the outbreak, which shows no signs of fading soon.
The federal government has ramped up spending, with the Department of Health and Human Services announcing $306 million last week, including $103 million for increased monitoring of people exposed to infected animals, testing and outreach to high-risk populations, such as livestock workers.
USDA is scaling up a bulk milk testing program with the aim of pinpointing where the virus exists in order to support “rapid implementation of enhanced biosecurity measures to decrease the risk of transmission to other livestock and importantly, inform critical efforts to protect farmworkers to help lower their risk of exposure.”
“We've got to get it under control,” said Suzanne McComb, executive vice president of the American Association of Avian Pathologists. “We've got to have some type of traceability and tracking of these positive herds, because it could get really bad if we continue moving them throughout the country. We just don't know what this virus is going to do.”
McComb sees the bulk testing program as a positive sign but adds, “We'll just have to see how it's going to be regulated and how it's going to be enforced. I think that's part of the concern.”
USDA also is tightening eligibility rules for poultry operations seeking compensation for depopulating infected flocks. A rule issued at the end of December requires farmers to “undergo a biosecurity audit before restocking their poultry after an HPAI detection and before receiving future indemnity payments,” a USDA press release said.
McComb said AAAP will submit comments on the rule, which she said has some gaps. The National Chicken Council, which represents broiler producers said it objects to the rule.
“While we share the agency’s concern regarding reinfection of poultry premises, we do not believe this is the right approach,” Ashley Peterson, senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the industry group, told Agri-Pulse.
“We have significant concerns about how the parameters outlined in the Interim Final Rule are going to be implemented, especially since it was effective upon publication and auditors have yet to be trained. APHIS disregarded much of our input on the audit tool and, as such, we will be providing additional comments on the rule.”
The poultry industry has been particularly vocal about the virus since many of its operations located near dairy farms, mostly egg layer facilities, have been affected.
“If you follow the dairy cases, looking in the Midwest and then over to California and I think Colorado as well, you can see that the poultry outbreaks have recently followed the dairy cattle outbreaks,” McComb said.
Epidemiological studies have shown that the virus spread through cattle via transportation of animals and movement of both animals and people from one dairy farm to another.
“We learned fairly early on from the epidemiological work that was done, particularly some of the early work that was done in Michigan, that it’s not only the movement of animals, but it's people, vehicles and equipment that can be transferring the virus around,” said Jamie Jonker, chief science officer at the National Milk Producers Federation.
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says 919 dairy herds have been infected in 16 states. Some 715 of those are in California, according to the California Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. In the last 30 days, 183 of the 184 infected herds have been in California. The only other one was in Texas.
Egg-laying operations have been hit particularly hard. In 2024 alone, the industry lost 40 million birds, said Oscar Garrison, senior vice president of food safety for United Egg Producers. APHIS estimates 44 million birds classified as commercial were affected last year.
Garrison said that egg producers have been dealing with avian flu from wild birds since 2022, but in 2024 have had to contend with the outbreak in cows, as well.
“We're fighting from both fronts,” he said.
Emily Metz, president of the American Egg Board, the industry’s research and promotion checkoff group, said the past year has been “kind of the perfect storm,” which includes not just bird flu but record demand, along with disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and fires that have displaced wild bird populations, making their movements more difficult to predict.
“We're really focusing, with the new administration coming in, on laying out what tools we need in our toolbox, what questions need to be asked, and what things need to be done that may be done a little bit differently than what we've seen now,” Garrison said.
The outbreak began in the United States in January 2022, when USDA detected the H5N1 virus in wild birds before finding its way a month later into a commercial poultry facility. The virus has since jumped to other mammals: foxes, bobcats, coyotes, skunks. In March 2024 it was confirmed in dairy cattle in Texas, and has also been confirmed in goats and alpacas.
The virus was confirmed by USDA in one backyard swine herd last November. While the animals shared water sources, housing and equipment with poultry on a farm, they "did not display signs of illness,” according to USDA. Swine are considered mixing bowls for diseases due to their ability to be infected with both human and avian flu virus, making the detection a worrying sign.
The virus has not been found in any other swine herds following that detection, according to USDA data.
According to an Agri-Pulse analysis of USDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, most detections of the virus in poultry have occurred in the fall or spring. It hit poultry flocks hardest in March 2022, when more than 20 million birds were impacted, but last month the number of infected birds was 18.25 million– a sharp increase from November’s 6.93 million and October’s 4.37 million.
About 8.4 million of the infected birds reported for December were in California; about 6.1 million were commercial table egg layers and 424,700 were commercial table egg pullets.
California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross said Tuesday at the monthly State Food and Ag Board meeting that 10 million laying hens had been lost in California, which depends on other states’ production to supply about 60% of consumer demand.
Karen Ross
She added that “a little over 80 dairy operations” have had three weeks of negative test results, “so the curve on dairy seems to be going down.”
On Monday, a Louisiana patient over the age of 65 died after getting the virus, with the likely source being infected poultry and wild birds. Genetic sequences in influenza virus samples collected from the patient were determined by the CDC to differ from sequences found in poultry on the patient's property, suggesting gene mutations occurred in the patient after infection.
On the supply side, California dairies produced 2.9 billion tons of milk in November, a 7.4% drop from October and a 1% decrease from last November. Nationwide, milk production was down 0.8% from October.
“California has been trending lower on milk production per cow for some time,” Jonker said. But much of the November drop is due to the large scale of the outbreak in that state, he said.
Nationwide, the virus is “not having a material impact on dairy product availability,” he said.
Both McComb and Jonker see vaccines as a promising tool to contain the virus. “At this point, vaccination is going to have to be a tool in some form or fashion for control,” McComb said. And Jonker said from his discussions with vaccine manufacturers, “it sounds like there's a number of high-quality candidates out there.”
Trials are under way for seven vaccine candidates, USDA said. Spokesperson Allan Rodriguez said the department plans an update in the next few days on its work to address the virus.
Using a vaccine in cows or poultry could potentially have trade implications for poultry and milk exports, however. “We're continuing to talk with USDA regarding export-related issues,” McComb said. “We feel like other countries will still take imports of poultry if cattle get vaccinated, but we don't know that for sure. This is brand new territory.”
Said Jonker: “We remain optimistic that vaccines can be in that toolbox and can be used, if necessary,”
For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com.
Chloe Lovejoy and Noah Wicks contributed to this report.
