EGG-NEWS has editorialized on the futility of the attempt by USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to initially eradicate and then control HPAI in all sectors of the poultry industry but especially in egg production.  The APHIS has not changed its playbook since the Pennsylvania outbreaks in 1984. This is despite the emergence of a panornitic caused by the H5N1 strain with Eurasian genes affecting migratory waterfowl, marine birds and mammals and resident free-living, non-migratory birds in the U.S. 

With the advent of the new Administration, it is evident that pressure will be exerted on APHIS for a change in policy allowing limited immunization as an adjunct to biosecurity.  It is now accepted by avian health professionals that avian influenza virus may be transmitted by the aerogenous route. This invalidates even the most rigorous and effective structural and operational biosecurity. 

The incoming Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins recently received a memorandum from Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) advocating the application of vaccination.  Senator Heinrich stated, “Vaccinating all laying hens in the United States against HPAI will help lower egg prices for consumers, decrease production losses for farmers and ultimately decrease the cost to taxpayers through reduced indemnity payments.”  The expenditure on compensation and logistics drained in excess of $2.0 billion from the Commodity Credit Corporation in Fiscal Year 2024 with every prospect of further expenditure during the current year.  Senator Heinrich did not address the increase cost of eggs to consumers, amounting to an estimated $15 billion in 2022 and possibly over $20 billion in 2024, with every prospect of a continuation as evidenced by current retail prices.

Senator Heinrich requested Secretary Rollins to address:

• Negotiating trade agreements that will allow export of U.S. broiler products in the event that vaccination is applied on a strategic basis in high-risk areas and accompanied by appropriate surveillance to certify that exported products are derived from flocks unaffected by avian influenza.  The broiler sector of the U.S. poultry industry has resisted vaccination with considerable justification since approximately 15 percent by weight of annual production is exported, principally (97 percent) in the form of leg quarters to nations that may or may not accept the principle of vaccination.  The World Organization of Animal Health (WOAH) that establishes rules relating to trade with respect to flock and herd health accepts vaccination with appropriate surveillance.  APHIS for a variety of reasons, previously addressed in editorials in EGG-NEWS, has failed to consider the expedient of or to gain acceptance for vaccination among the membership of WOAH. This failure is now to the detriment of U.S. consumers and especially producers of eggs and turkeys.

• Secretary Rollins was asked to respond to logistic considerations including deploying H5N1 vaccination and surveillance.  The letter requested specifics on prioritizing flocks or regions in relation to risk of infection and reducing the impact of unjustified embargos on exports.

• The letter included, “Please share in detail your plan to lower egg and poultry prices through vaccination efforts and other means including a complete vaccination strategy, use cases and a plan to procure, stockpile, distribute, deploy, administer and track the use of H5N1 vaccines.”

• Senator Heinrich requested information on proposed USDA research with reference to the current H5N1 strain.  It is evident that opponents of vaccination are advancing the need for additional and inevitably protracted studies to delay introduction of immunization.  It is clear that questions regarding the effectiveness of vaccines, the reality that vaccinated flocks can still become infected, shifts in antigenicity associated with wide-scale vaccination and other theoretical concepts need to be addressed.  They should not however be used as a strategy to restrict or prevent vaccination.

Commercial inactivated vaccines can be purchased ‘off the shelf’ with one product approved by USDA and others soon to be available subject to APHIS acceptance. It is now up to the Agency to recognize the failure to either eradicate an endemic infection or to even control the ongoing epornitic applying biosecurity, irrespective of intensity.