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Rollins says USDA’s plan to address HPAI is working

Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins says the work the Trump administration is doing to address highly pathogenic avian influenza is working. “The market reacted very positively to being bold and to having a big plan to investing where it matters, in biosecurity especially,” she says.  “We’ve seen the prices come down in the wholesale market 44% than when they peaked in February.”

She tells Brownfield the USDA continues to help the industry find long-term solutions. We’re doing it every other week, a touch base with our poultry industry from the USDA on what the numbers look like and what we’re doing,” she says.  “But also how we can do better getting feedback from those that are on the ground feeding America right now.”

Last month, the department released its five-pronged approach to addressing HPAI, which includes enhanced biosecurity measures, financial relief for affected farmers, reducing regulatory burdens, exploring temporary import options, and the potential use of vaccines and therapeutics.

Rollins says a robust debate continues around the use of vaccinations to fight the virus. “But it isn’t just on the vaccine side or on the therapeutics,” she says.  “It’s understanding what culling looks like. It’s understanding what immunity looks like from the chickens and as it moves into the dairy, etc. The biggest question perhaps is what this means on the human side. That as we vaccinate, the virus changes. And it begins to move into not only other livestock, but humans potentially as well. That was just we don’t understand it yet. So that’s where a lot of this research now moves.

And, Rollins says, “I am encouraged and optimistic that we will get to a viable option, it’s just not going to be tomorrow or next month, but hopefully by next year or beyond.”

According to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website, in the last 30 days, the virus has been confirmed in 19 commercial flocks and has impacted more than 4 million birds.  APHIS says it expects the cases of HPAI to ebb and flow depending on wild bird migratory patterns.

AUDIO: Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins with an HPAI update