USDA stresses biosecurity at poultry operations in avian flu outbreak

Agriculture Department officials said Thursday they're focusing their efforts to fight the bird flu on biosecurity in poultry flocks, particularly egg-laying operations, as they seek to lower egg prices.

In a call with industry stakeholders and reporters, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the recent steep drop in wholesale egg prices is a sign that the Trump administration is “moving in the right direction” on its five-point plan to combat the avian flu outbreak in poultry flocks.

Rollins also said the department was making available up to $100 million to “explore prevention, therapeutics, research and potential vaccine candidates.”

The $100 million in funding was announced as part of USDA’s strategy Feb. 26, which also included $500 million for biosecurity and $400 million to increase indemnity rates for producers, as well as a number of options to reduce egg prices, such as “minimiz[ing] burdens on individual farmers and consumers who harvest homegrown eggs.”

Rollins said the $100 million would be used to “test the efficacy of therapeutic interventions to prevent bird flu and treat infected flocks” and that the department has been coordinating with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health.

In addition to research on vaccines and therapeutics, she said USDA would be "“exploring prevention strategies to promote biosecurity in agriculture and in humans to ensure limited impact on American farmers."

"I've had multiples and multiples and multiples of conversations with some of our chicken farmers across the country, many of them who have been highly successful at not having the bird flu infect their populations," Rollins said. "Understanding those risk pathways and getting that understanding and realizing what best practices are is a big part of this." 

In answer to a question from International Dairy Foods Association President Michael Dykes, who said he “didn't hear dairy mentioned in the vaccination strategy,” Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Administrator Mike Watson said "right now we're focused on the poultry vaccine.”

“We're looking for a vaccine that has sterilizing immunity, but also an opportunity for us to have different introduction methods for the vaccine,” noting that currently “injection is the only possibility.”

He called for “new tools, whether it's water-based, aerosol-based, those kind of things. So we're looking for manufacturers to really look at what those options might be, to really provide us with a vaccine that matches the current strain but also is highly effective.”

Rollins’ chief of staff, Kailee Tkacz Buller, followed up, saying that “There is quite a bit of research here at USDA already on the topic at hand and dairy. Please rest assured, we are thinking of you all. We know you all are impacted, but I think for this particular strategy, we have been hyper-focused on the poultry side.” 

Chad Gregory, president and CEO of United Egg Producers, urged the administration to continue its vaccine efforts. 

“The U.S. egg industry is very much behind this approach and each of these five prongs, with emphasis from our perspective, of course, on getting a vaccine to be able to vaccinate not only the egg laying industry, but also turkey and potentially dairy,” he said.

Rollins noted that the wholesale price for a dozen eggs has dropped more than 50% – from $8.53 to $4.08 – since Feb. 26. She said "we are obviously moving in the right direction, absent any unforeseen, significant depopulation events." 

In February, about 12.6 million egg layers were depopulated. But since the strategy was announced, slightly less than 700,000 egg layers have suffered the same fate.

Rollins also said the administration has reached agreements with Turkey and South Korea to export eggs to the U.S., and that another country is ready to send a “significant amount of eggs in the near future.”

Answering a question from Gregory about whether those imports would cease “once eggs get back to a normal supply, prices drop to break-even or even unprofitable for the egg producers,” Buller said, “we wouldn't expect as many imports coming in” as market conditions adjust.

Asked about Kennedy’s idea of allowing the bird flu to spread, then identifying birds that are immune ands using them to repopulate, as he suggested in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity March 12, Buller declined to address the issue specifically.

“I have not been engaged specifically with those conversations with the [Ag] Secretary and Secretary Kennedy,” she said. “They are talking very regularly and the two are aligned on approach, but in terms of that specific topic, there's no further light I can shed on that at this time.”

Kennedy’s idea has sparked alarm from animal health experts, who have warned that allowing the virus to infect millions of birds would give it more chances to mutate, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

"All of my agencies have advised against vaccination of birds," Kennedy said.

USDA on Wednesday announced it was expanding the availability of free biosecurity assessments for poultry operations. It also said it would cover "up to 75% of the costs to fix the highest risk biosecurity concerns identified by the assessments."

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