Dive Brief:
- U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced last week a $1 billion strategy to curb the ongoing bird flu, protect the U.S. poultry industry and lower egg prices.
- The strategy includes providing $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for impacted farmers and $100 million for vaccine research, action to reduce regulatory burdens and exploration of temporary import options, per the announcement.
- The USDA’s plan comes after the department predicted consumer costs for eggs would rise more than 40% this year.
Dive Insight:
The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), more commonly known as the bird flu, has been plaguing the grocery and food retail industry for three years, driving up the price of eggs and causing shortages at grocery stores.
This newly announced five-pronged plan comes as the USDA struggles to rehire employees who were working on the bird flu outbreak but were fired during the Trump administration’s widespread layoffs of government workers, Politico reported.
The USDA’s strategy announced at the end of February to address the ongoing bird flu epidemic includes five areas of action:
- Investments in biosecurity measures for U.S. poultry producers,
- More relief to aid farmers,
- Removal of unnecessary regulatory burdens on the chicken and egg industry to help reduce prices and “further innovation,”
- Investments in new vaccines, therapeutics and more for egg-laying chickens,
- Consideration of temporary imports and exports to reduce consumer costs
The USDA’s biosecurity measures include expanding the Wildlife Biosecurity Assessments across the U.S. to safeguard farms from bird flu transmission by wild birds. Biosecurity audits will also be expanded and made available to surrounding, non-affected farms.
The USDA added that biosecurity efforts will include deploying 20 trained epidemiologists as part of its effort to “provide actionable and timely advice” to reduce the risk of HPAI at producers’ facilities, per the press release.
“USDA will share up to 75% of the costs to fix the highest risk biosecurity concerns identified by the assessments and audits, with a total available investment of up to $500 million,” the announcement stated.
The USDA’s relief for farmers includes the exploration of new programs to help them increase the rate of repopulation for their flocks. The USDA pledged up to $400 million for farmer aid for the remainder of the fiscal year, however, the agency did not provide details on what these new programs could entail.
The USDA also outlined work with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “examine strategies to safely expand supply in the commercial market for eggs,” according to the press release. The USDA said it will also “minimize burdens on individual farmers and consumers who harvest homegrown eggs,” but did not offer details.
The USDA plans to work with farmers and scientists to develop “innovative strategies” meant to limit the extent of depopulations with bird flu outbreaks as well as educate consumers and Congress on the problem of geographical price differences for eggs.
The USDA also plans to explore “potential new generation vaccines, therapeutics, and other innovative solutions” to minimize depopulation of egg-laying chickens and increase bio-surveillance of chickens “in and around outbreaks,” according to the press release. The agency will work with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for “considerations of tradeoffs between public health and infectious disease strategy.”
The USDA’s newly announced plan also includes exploring options for temporarily increasing egg imports and decreasing exports as the U.S. continues to face egg shortages — an initiative that comes as the U.S.’s tariffs pause with Canada and Mexico ends on Tuesday.
The USDA’s plan, however, does not dictate how it will address these changes following Trump’s sweeping government layoffs, which laid off one-fourth of the department’s employees in “critical office testing” for the bird flu as well as scientists and inspectors, Politico reported. The news outlet added that the USDA is also currently having difficulty convincing these impacted workers to return.
