USDA Implements New Avian Flu Protocols to Prevent Mass Culling of Chickens

New protocols are being implemented in the USDA regarding its response to the avian flu as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins looks for ways to prevent the mass culling of chickens. Egg prices have continued to soar as millions of chickens have been culled due to avian flu concerns while some states have implemented new cage-free laws.

The USDA has an indemnity program to compensate egg farms for chickens that are culled when avian flu is detected. The program currently does not compensate farmers for chickens that die of the avian flu, so it encourages farmers to kill the entire flock, which may include more than a million chickens.

The approach of killing an entire flock of chickens has caused a shortage of eggs, leading to rising costs around the country. This approach has received stark scrutiny from farmers on social media. Dustin Kittle, a rancher and a lawyer, called the practice “Government manipulation of supply and demand to create artificial inflation and record profits for Big Ag; with chickens and eggs effectively “sold” to the Government to create a shortage in supply, resulting in a demand that allowed for higher prices to be passed on to all us, the consumers.”

The indemnity program has paid out $1.46 billion since the start of the outbreak in 2022. Cal-Maine Foods received over $44 million in payments but also had an 82% increase in net sales for the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) concluded that the indemnity program removed nearly all risk for farmers and didn’t require any additional biosecurity measures.

APHIS published a new rule on 12/31/24 in the federal register that requires farms to take additional measures before qualifying for the indemnity payment.

Secretary Rollins said the agency will be “rolling out more tools in the toolkit” this week and said it would take a “little while to bring these prices down after the last four years.”

Kevin Hassett, the National Economic Council Director, commented on the previous administration’s response to the avian flu and discussed the plan for moving forward. On Face The Nation, Hassett said, “The Biden plan 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. We’re working with all the best people in government, including academics around the country and around the world, to have better ways with biosecurity and medication and so on, to make sure that the perimeter doesn’t have to kill the chicken.”

The specific details of the new protocols have not been announced. The USDA gave conditional approval to Zoetis, an animal health company, for its poultry vaccine against subtype H5N2. The company states in a press release, “Zoetis has a long history of developing vaccines to address avian influenza in multiple countries. In 2016, the company received a conditional license for its H5N1 vaccine and a contract award for the USDA’s National Veterinary Stockpile.”

Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, a biotech company specializing in vaccine development, stated that the H5N2 vaccine would not be suitable for the current strains that are circulating.

During an appearance on The Ingraham Angle on Fox News, Glanville said, “The Zoetis vaccine is heavily mismatched to the current H5N1 strain circulating out there—it’s based on an older H5N2 subtype, and the virus has evolved significantly since then.”

Zoetis received conditional approval in 2016 for an H5N1 bird vaccine, and it is included in the USDA’s stockpile, but it has only been used for California condors.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been working with agencies to cut spending, including terminating hundreds of thousands of government employees. The USDA announced that it hastily terminated individuals working on the avian flu, but is now attempting to rescind the letters and bring the employees back to work.

The USDA spokesperson said, “Although several positions supporting [avian flu] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service frontline positions are considered public safety positions, and we are continuing to hire the workforce necessary to ensure the safety and adequate supply of food to fulfill our statutory mission.”

The New York Post reported the difficulty farmers are battling the virus and spending millions of dollars on biosecurity upgrades.

Greg Herbruck, the CEO of Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch in Michigan, said “I call this virus a terrorist. And we are in a battle and losing, at the moment.” Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, said, “We’re desperate, and we need every possible tool. And right now, we’re fighting this virus with at least one, if not two, arms tied behind our back. And the vaccine can be a huge hammer in our toolbox.”

The primary method of utilizing poultry vaccines would be in the water supply, which requires extra steps to ensure the vaccines stay viable. The presence of chlorine or heavy metals in the water diminishes the viability.

There are also concerns that vaccinating poultry may mask the symptoms. Many countries ban imports of poultry and eggs that have been vaccinated due to concerns that the product may still be harboring the virus. A mass poultry vaccination campaign would diminish exports of chicken and eggs to other countries.

H5N1 has been transmitted to livestock and, in some cases, to humans, but the CDC has continued to say the risk is low. California declared a state of emergency in December. Former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has said that H5N1 would not naturally mutate to become infectious between humans, but an infectious strain could be created in a lab via gain-of-function research.

The HighWire reported in May about experimental mRNA poultry vaccines being developed by the Pennsylvania School of Medicine.