USDA Claims Authority to Combat Bird Flu, Trains APHIS with FEMA Protocols

H5N1 fears are ramping up as the USDA seeks to give FEMA training to the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The notice appeared in the federal register and stated, “APHIS is assuming responsibility for providing certain Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-related training to APHIS employees. The training consists of courses such as Introduction to the Incident Command System (ICS), ICS for Initial Response, ICS for Expanding Incidents, and advanced training to employees who require advanced knowledge of ICS. Additional training includes an overview of NIMS and the National Response Framework focusing especially on those who are involved in delivering and applying the response core capabilities.”

The agency is requesting that the Office of Management and Budget approve information collection for the next three years. The notice is not specifically tied to the current bird flu outbreak.

Breeauna Sagdal, Senior Writer and Research Fellow at the Beef Initiative uncovered the information and the details that H5N1 is classified as a Foreign Animal Disease (FAD). This means APHIS and USDA secretary of agriculture have “permanent authority” to “manage and eradicate” under The Animal Damage Control Act of 1931, 7 U.S.C. 8351 et seq.; The Animal Health Protection Act, 7 U.S.C. 8301-8317, etc.”

The permanent authority to manage and eradicate is concerning language. “Whatever falls in between is completely at the sole discretion of the secretary of agriculture,” Sagdal said. “That’s a whole lot of interpreted authority.”

Sagdal says this hinges upon the notion that the H5N1 outbreak occurred from a zoonotic spillover event. There has been little evidence to substantiate the origin of the current H5N1 strain infecting cattle in several U.S. states. Dr. Peter McCullough has pointed to evidence that the strain spilled over from an Athens, Georgia, lab, which was reported in a previous article from The HighWire.

Concerns among farmers persist that control mechanisms to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases will impact small beef producers. Sagdal is a small, private beef producer who said, “The way this (H5N1) is being handled is just not adding up.” She referred to new testing protocols by APHIS that require the testing of the cow’s milk from all four teats.

“To put this level of insanity into perspective, this is the equivalent of testing lactating women for COVID-19 using their breast milk rather than a lung scan,” Sagdal said. “Then, claiming milk from both breasts must be tested because one breast could have the virus in it, but not the other.”

The HighWire reported on the flawed study led by researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka, who concluded that raw milk can spread the infection to mice if it is inoculated with the virus. Kawaoka is well known for his experimental research on the 1918 spanish flu as well as gain of function research on the bird flu over a decade ago.

Sagdal said, “It’s certainly odd, from a rancher producer perspective, to suddenly see sample collection methods vary so wildly across species. The livestock HPAI framework claims that brain samples are preferable in cats, yet cloaca swabs are needed for poultry. I just can’t wrap my mind around that.”

Deborah Birx has called for every cow to be tested weekly for H5N1 and insists that asymptomatic infection is possible. The PCR tests from COVID-19 have been widely reported to have false positives. If asymptomatic cows test positive, then it may cause agencies and the public to believe that the outbreak is more severe than it really is.

If APHIS employees become trained with FEMA protocols, they can “manage and eradicate” as they see fit. The agency claims this level of authority in its interpretation of its authority. A court could overturn this power grab based on the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Chevron Deference.

“I think we’re really starting to see the centralization occurring, and we’re watching as the framework is being built around this outbreak,” Sagdal said. “Whether it exists or not, I don’t know, but it’s giving them the authority and the funding to be able to build out this entire structure. That’s what we’re watching happen in real-time. We’re watching this entire structure being built out. It makes it even more difficult for the independent cow producer. The cattle industry in general is the last remaining decentralized source of food in the country. You can make the broader, more philosophical argument that this is about land grabs and acquisition. In terms of just the cattle side, we’re highlighting how the centralization is taking place.”

The “One Health” model for public and global health posits that animals, humans, and plants are treated as equal members of the global ecosystem. In doing so, the stated purpose is to prevent illnesses and diseases so that all can cohabitate and live in harmony. The model has been adopted by the federal health agencies and the Biden administration as a way to prevent the next pandemic.

Brian O’Shea, an investigative journalist and researcher, has described the One Health model as a Chinese control mechanism and a land grab. He said the infamous Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance was one of the authors of the One Health model and frequently championed the protocol. Daszak was recently debarred for the dangerous gain-of-function research he was conducting in Wuhan, which many believe was the origin of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

The goal of separating animals from humans is based on the notion that diseases spread between species and become dangerous when they mutate to the human species. The COVID-19 hearings in the House and Senate has found a number of scientists and researchers clinging to the concept of zoonotic origin despite the overwhelming evidence of lab-leak. O’Shea said the same scientists pushing zoonotic origin for COVID-19 are also pushing the concept of One Health.

“When you go to the framework, a big part of One Health is land reallocation and land management,” O’Shea said. “The tracking of the cows is really about tracking the food that they don’t control. That’s how they get control over it. You put the farmers out of business so the government controls output in the food industry. One health, ironically, is almost exactly like what Mao Zedong was doing.”

O’Shea explained that the local One Health officials are within several federal agencies, including the CDC, EPA, USDA, and NASA. “It shifts power into health and environmental groups rather than law enforcement,” O’Shea said.

As the World Health Organization, China, the U.S. government, and zoonotic spillover theorists push for the One Health model, farmers and ranchers are concerned that centralized authority will lead to the death of small producers in America. President Biden announced the Global Health Security Strategy in April, which mentions the One Health approach and includes the word “surveillance” 52 times.