USDA rehires bird flu workers amid controversy over culling birds
The Agriculture Department’s Food Safety Inspection Service has rehired employees who were fired but work on bird flu issues, NBC News reported.
Meanwhile, ag groups are reacting cautiously to a statement by Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that the Biden plan to deal with bird flu “was to just, you know, kill chickens. And they spent billions of dollars just randomly killing chickens within a perimeter where they found a sick chicken.”
Hassett said, “And so what we need to do is have better ways, with biosecurity and medication and so on, to make sure that the perimeter doesn’t have to kill the chickens, have a better, smarter perimeter. And so having a smart perimeter is what we’re working on. And we’re finalizing the ideas about how to do that with the best scientists in government.”
The United Egg Producers told The Hagstrom Report in an email, “Egg producers are encouraged by the engagement from the administration and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins on a comprehensive approach to HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza or “bird flu”). As details on the path forward emerge, egg farmers stand ready to support initiatives that will bring stability to the egg industry and protect our flocks.”
Tom Super, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council (NCC), said, “We do not want to speculate until we see the specifics of any plan.”
Last week, NCC thanked the co-chairs of the Congressional and Senate Chicken Caucuses – Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Chris Coons, D-Del., and Reps. Steve Womack, R-Ark., and Jim Costa, D-Calif., for writing Rollins to seek assurances to protect U.S. chicken exports should vaccination be contemplated as part of any government strategy to combat bird flu.
With the recent attention around increased egg prices due to HPAI, there have been renewed conversations about whether the U.S. should vaccinate commercial poultry flocks against the virus.
The letter pointed out that “broilers,” or chickens raised for meat, are an entirely separate industry from the egg-laying sector, with distinct supply chains, geographic footprints, housing structure, bird lifespans, biosecurity practices, and trade portfolios, NCC noted.
“The problem is that most U.S. trading partners do not recognize countries that vaccinate as free of HPAI due to concerns that vaccines can mask the presence of the virus. Therefore, U.S. trading partners do not accept exports from countries that vaccinate, either for specific product categories, regions that vaccinate, or for all poultry from the country,” the members said. “In other words, if an egg-laying hen in Michigan is vaccinated for HPAI, the U.S. right now would likely be unable to export an unvaccinated broiler chicken from Mississippi.”
“This is what is at stake in the HPAI vaccine discussion: a potential $10+ billion annual loss to the U.S. economy and American broiler farmers feeling a huge brunt when they have been the least affected by HPAI,” the members continued. “While some trading partners may levy temporary restrictions, others could be indefinite. A widescale HPAI vaccination program in the U.S., without first strengthening our animal health trade agreements, could cause our trading partners to take action that would significantly harm our domestic poultry sector.” Thirteen senators led by Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on Wednesday pressed Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to address the bird flu outbreak that, they noted, affects both poultry producers and dairy farmers.
The senators wrote, “The United States is now entering the fourth year of an outbreak of HPAI that has devastated farms, required the depopulation of more than 136 million birds on commercial poultry operations, and infected a small but growing number of farm workers. A new urgency is required from the USDA to address the evolving situation.”
–The Hagstrom Report
