USDA Tapping CCC Piggybank for HPAI Expenses

Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture has authorized transfer of $263 million from the Commodity Credit Corporation, a bottomless piggybank to fund expenses incurred to control HPAI. The April funding is additional to the $130 million authorized in March. The allocation will pay for indemnity, labor, rapid and laboratory diagnostic tests, surveillance, depletion and disposal and other authorized direct costs. To date approximately 30 million hens, broilers and turkeys have been infected on close to 150 premises.