By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. will invest up to $1 billion to combat the spread of bird flu, as well as increase imports of eggs, agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said on Wednesday.
A three-year bird flu outbreak in U.S. poultry has killed 166 million chickens since 2022, according to USDA data.
The virus has also infected nearly 1,000 dairy herds and almost 70 people, including one who died, since early 2024.
The USDA will spend up to $500 million to provide free biosecurity audits to farms and $400 million to increase payment rates to farmers who need to kill their chickens due to bird flu, Rollins said at a conference of state agriculture officials.
Some of the money will come from cuts to USDA spending by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Rollins said in a Wednesday Wall Street Journal column.
The USDA is exploring vaccines for chickens but is not yet authorizing their use, Rollins said. The poultry industry is divided on whether to vaccinate chickens because of potential trade implications.
“It could be a solution, but to push that out now and require it, we’re just not ready,” Rollins said of vaccines when speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
The administration plans to increase imports and decrease exports of eggs to boost domestic supply and combat record high egg prices, Rollins said. Turkey has said it will export 15,000 tons of eggs to the U.S. through July.
Egg prices have nearly doubled since last year. Scant supply is leading some consumers to “panic buy,” said Virginia Tech economist Jadrian Wooten in an email.
In May, the administration of President Joe Biden allocated more than $800 million to combat bird flu in livestock. About $450 million of that money is still available, a USDA official said on Tuesday at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture conference.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Louise Heavens, Christina Fincher and Bill Berkrot)
