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Rollins commends USDA’s HPAI prevention plan

The USDA says its plan to combat highly pathogenic avian influenza is working. Brownfield’s Erin Anderson filed this report from her stop in Ohio on Monday.

Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins says the department’s five-pronged approach has brought down wholesale egg prices, but there’s still work to do. “Almost immediately, we saw the wholesale price of eggs come down and in about four weeks the wholesale prices come down 56 percent. So depending on what part of the country you are from, the retail prices have followed. But overall, the average prices have come down for wholesale eggs between 56 and 58 percent.”

She says the short term importation of eggs has helped producers meet demand. “We had immediate agreements reached with Turkey and South Korea and a few other countries while our egg farmers here repopulate.”

Following her roundtable with producers at Weaver Eggs in Versailles, Ohio Rollins said the virus has hit Ohio egg producers especially hard. “That’s why I wanted to get here as soon as I could, but there is no doubt where we stand today in this county and the adjacent county, that there’s no part of America that has been more ravaged with the avian bird flu than where we stand right now.”

Secretary Rollins was joined by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Director of Agriculture Brian Baldridge for the visit.