The decision is complex because vaccination would instantly cut off more than half of the United States’ poultry exports due to trade provisions that forbid vaccination.
Even before any vaccine is approved, government officials are talking to international partners to soften the blow on the U.S. chicken export business in the eventuality that the United States deploys a vaccine.
Bird flu and the culling measures taken to attempt to stop its spread have wiped out 166 million birds in the United States since the current outbreak began in February 2022. This has driven up egg prices and triggered isolated shortages around the nation.
Over the past decade, the United States has faced two large outbreaks of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu. The first outbreak, which occurred over the winter of 2014–15, hit the egg and turkey industries hard but was halted through the culling of sick birds, movement controls, and strict biosecurity measures.
The current bird flu outbreak has continued almost nonstop since February 2022 and the old strategy has so far failed to break the tide of the infection. As a result, both producers and regulators are considering a vaccine as a solution, even though it could cause extensive damage to the lucrative chicken export business.
Vaccination on the Table
The crisis has drawn the attention of the White House. During an address to a joint session of Congress on March 4, President Donald Trump said the price of eggs was “out of control” and called on his Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, to “do a good job” of handling the issue.
Rollins announced the first step in carrying out that objective on Feb. 26. Along with committing as much as $1 billion to fight bird flu and drive down egg prices, Rollins announced the USDA will be taking the extraordinary step of exploring “vaccines, therapeutics, and other innovative solutions to minimize depopulation of egg-laying chickens.”
Using a vaccine is a tricky subject in the poultry world because of the significant potential international trade impacts.
Greg Tyler, the president and CEO of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, told The Epoch Times that if the United States started vaccinating today, as much as $3 billion worth of the country’s $5.8 billion poultry export market could be instantly closed off.
A senior USDA official who spoke with The Epoch Times confirmed that the agency considers vaccination an option to fight bird flu but it hasn’t made any final decisions and won’t rush to make any.
Rollins, the official said, understands the complexity of the issue and will consult with all parties in state governments, the agriculture industry, and the international trade community before making any decision.
The official said Rollins understands that vaccination is not the only solution to the country’s bird flu problem and may well not be the best possible solution. Logistically, the official said, vaccinating birds would be difficult as the technology does not yet exist for a dose to be administered without physically injecting birds.
The USDA has not yet approved any bird flu vaccine for use in the United States.
Tyler said he’s aware of a governmental effort to present a vaccination plan to the U.S.’s major trading partners to solicit each country’s feedback and, therefore, minimize trade impacts. Previously, he said, government officials were rushing to vaccination as a “quick fix” to drop egg prices. Still, he said the education offered by the poultry industry and elected officials from states with a significant poultry industry led to a more measured approach surrounding vaccination.
Ultimately, Tyler said the U.S. poultry industry wants to move ahead with vaccination if it helps the domestic egg industry, but a solution that doesn’t interfere with the massive U.S. export business needs to be found.
Hellbound and Down 