The United States is in its fourth year of an almost continuous outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Despite changing leadership in the country’s finest agricultural and public health authorities, the government continues its strategy of culling millions of birds to limit spreading disease.
A senior official who spoke with the Epoch Times said that culling is continuing as there are no options available.
The USDA calls its strategy “stamp out.”
Avian influenza, or avian influenza, was first identified in China in the 1990s and has since spread throughout the world through migratory wild birds.
The disease first struck the United States at the end of 2014. At the time, the United States successfully deployed a stamping-out strategy to stop the outbreak of avian flu within a year.
According to the USDA, 70% of cases of avian flu spread from farm to farm during the 2014 outbreak.
Farm-to-farm infection occurs when workers or equipment moving from one farm to another carry the disease and spread to other birds.
Carol Cardona, one of the nation’s most important experts in Avian Flu, said the US egg industry has learned from its experience, and has significantly improved biosecurity practices to reduce farm-to-farm communication.
Cardona, a professor in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Minnesota, said the disease has been mutated since 2015 and has spread to farms either by wild birds or potentially household mammals that carry chicken to homes.
She said the disease is endemic or is becoming more frequent among wild birds.
USDA figures released on March 5 show that since the latest outbreak began in February 2022, USDA attempting to eliminate the virus has resulted in losses of at least 166 million birds.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) refers to a poster detailing the costs of eggs at the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing at the US Capitol on March 5, 2025. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
It has led to a large amount of dramatic effects on egg supply without a clear decline in infections, and criticism of culing’s plan.
Dr. Robert Malone, a vaccine pioneer known for his skepticism about the US Public Health’s approach to Covid-19, agreed to Cardona’s assessment that the disease is endemic.
He said the protocol now unnecessarily raises the costs of staple foods and contributes to the political tensions surrounding inflation.
“(culling) is basically wasting resources. We’re not doing anything anymore,” Malone told the Epoch Times. “So when something isn’t working repeatedly, you should think through another policy that probably makes sense.”
Why culling continues
The price of eggs is already combined with the country’s rising cost of living, spurring action in Washington.
President Donald Trump has directed the USDA to take steps to lower egg prices as soon as possible.
In a speech to the March 4 Congressional joint session, Trump denounced his predecessor, saying, “(President) Joe Biden has especially made egg prices out of control.”
He spoke to his Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins, who said, “He inherited the complete turmoil from the previous administration.”
Meanwhile, there was some momentum from the White House to limit the suspension or restrictions.
In an interview with CBS’s Face, which aired on February 16, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said Biden’s USDA “just randomly kills chickens within the boundaries where they found sick chickens.”
He advocated finding an alternative to cul.
Malone suggested that farmers run their courses in sick chicken homes and breed surviving birds that have developed immunity.
Alternatively, he said the industry should investigate the types of so-called heritage that have bred those animals to demonstrate greater resilience to avian flu and find long-term solutions.
It was on sale at the Wabash Feed & Garden Store in Houston on February 10th, 2025. Moises Avila/AFP via Getty Images
A USDA official who spoke with the Epoch Times said the agency remains open to alternative approaches, but so far none has been found to work.
A USDA official said there is little evidence that culling alternatives will keep birds alive.
All previous attempts the USDA knows to isolate healthy portions of flocks from sick birds are supposed to cause healthy birds to get infected and die, officials said.
Regarding the development of herd immunity, senior officials said they believe it would be extremely dangerous for the USDA to try to create innate immunity in a field environment.
Uncontrolled untreated avian influenza circulating freely in commercially available poultry homes represents a serious risk that it can spread to other birds and mutate and spread to other animals, including humans.
Officials say the USDA encourages breeders to try to develop more resistant strains in a controlled laboratory environment where infected animals can be isolated and humanely euthanized if they become ill with the virus.
This could be an effective way to develop avian resistance genetics, perhaps even attempting gene editing techniques, officials said.
Microbiologists are working on testing poultry samples collected from farms in the control area for the presence of avian influenza on March 24, 2022, at the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Payment of compensation
In testimony before the US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on February 26, Tony Wesner, CEO of Indiana-based egg producer Rose Acre Farm, spoke at length about his perspective on the development crisis of the egg industry.
Summoned before a committee representing egg producers at United, the National Egg Farmers Group, Wesner said depopulation is “essential” once a farm is infected with avian flu.
He said it is a provision in the Animal Health Protection Act.
If farmers do not cull the birds after detection of avian flu, they are not entitled to receive money from the government to recover their losses and help reopen the business.
In his testimony, Wesner said the compensation would only partially compensate “for the loss of value the government places on producers.”
“Many farms are likely to withdraw production,” he said without compensation.
Since the inception of the current outbreak through the end of November 2024, Wesner said federal compensation payments totaled around $1.25 billion.
However, he uses the current formula used by USDA to calculate “inadequate”.
He also said those pay raises “distance to the whole producer” even though the agency uses new updated formulas recommended by United egg producers.
On February 26th, USDA increased the amount paid in compensation for $400 million.
US Department of Agriculture in Washington on June 28, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
Long-term questions
Enhanced farm biosecurity is an important board in the new USDA playbook for bird flu.
The agency said in late February it would dedicate up to $500 million to “gold standard biosecurity measures for all US poultry producers.”
A USDA official said that biosecurity’s separation from farms from bird flu is the most valuable way to combat its spread, and is still the most important aspect of disease control.
The next step to combat this is to use vaccines to control spread of disease and limit the number of bird deaths.
In his testimony, Wesner said the egg industry would like to adopt a “active” vaccination strategy to control the disease.
Cardona agreed that if the illness becomes endemic, it is likely that vaccinations will be required.
However, the decision to get vaccinated can cause important international trade issues and difficult public health issues.
Vaccinations will have serious consequences for the much larger chicken industry.
