USDA outlines new $1 billion avian influenza strategy

By DANIEL GRANT

FarmWeek

SPRINGFIELD – USDA recently unveiled a new strategy to slow the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), ease the rising cost of eggs and protect the U.S. poultry industry.

Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins detailed a new five-pronged strategy to combat HPAI in which USDA plans to invest up to $1 billion as part of the comprehensive effort. This is in addition to funding already being provided to indemnify growers for depopulated poultry flocks.

Plans for the new investments to combat HPAI include $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for affected farmers and $100 million for vaccine research, action to reduce regulatory burdens and exploring temporary import options.

“President (Donald) Trump understands the importance of addressing this issue head on, and USDA is taking action to support farmers, strengthen supply chains and bring egg prices down,” Rollins said.

The five-pronged approach to address issues with HPAI, or bird flu, includes the following:

• Invest in gold-standard biosecurity measures for all U.S. poultry producers. As part of the effort, USDA will expand its highly successful Wildlife Biosecurity Assessments to producers across the nation, beginning with egg-layer facilities, to safeguard farms from the cause of 83% of HPAI cases — transmission from wild birds.
• Increase relief and aid to farmers and accelerate repopulation.
• Remove unnecessary regulatory burdens on the chicken and egg industry to further innovation and reduce consumer prices.
• Explore pathways toward vaccines, therapeutics and other strategies to protect egg-laying chickens to reduce instances of depopulation. USDA approved a conditional license for bird flu in poultry this month, another step toward a vaccine.
• Consider temporary import-export options to reduce costs on consumers and evaluate international best practices. USDA will explore options to temporarily increase egg imports and decrease exports, if applicable, to supplement the domestic supply.

The HPAI outbreak in the U.S. is nearing its fourth year, during which time more than 150 million egg-laying hens and chickens raised for meat were culled. It also spread to dairy cattle in the past year.

The average price of a dozen eggs nationwide subsequently skyrocketed from $1.47 in January 2021 to $4.95 last month.

“American farmers need relief, and American consumers need affordable food,” Rollins recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “To every family struggling to buy eggs: We hear you, we’re fighting for you and help is on the way.”

(This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.)