A federal plan to combat avian flu has 5 parts, but scientists disagree on how effective the changes will be

Major poultry and dairy organizations back vaccine
use to control the virus. (Farm Journal photo)

The Department of Agriculture has been hard at work "hatching" a plan to contain and prevent further avian flu, also known as bird flu, outbreaks among chicken flocks. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins "released a five-pronged strategy and investment of $1 billion to combat avian flu and reduce rising egg prices," reports Dawn Attride of Sentient Media. "The new measures focus largely on fixing on-farm biosecurity gaps as well as push for a new poultry vaccine."

A large chunk of the USDA's investment will shore up farm biosecurity by "ramping up protocols to guard against disease spillover from wildlife — at no cost to farmers," Attride explains. "The Rollins plan is light on concrete details as to what exactly the new biosecurity strategies are," but it appears the rollout will lean on a set of biosecurity protocols created in 2016 as part of the National Poultry Improvement Plan.

In her Wall Street Journal commentary, "Rollins notes that of the 150 sites that followed recommended biosecurity protocols, only one was subsequently affected by avian flu," Attride reports. The USDA plan includes using "smart perimeters" to predict and prevent the disease from infecting flocks.

Not all scientists agree that "smart perimeters" can deliver bird flu prevention. Maurice Pitesky, an associate professor and expert in poultry disease modeling at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, told Attride, "[Smart perimeters] are a pretty crude way of assessing risk." Attride adds, "What works better, according to Pitesky: accurately tracking bird movement and holistically assessing different factors — such as wind or temperature — that might drive birds into this radius."

The USDA also plans to step away from its long-held insistence that infected flocks be culled; however, experts disagree on how that change will play out. Meghan Davis, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, would like more details on which "strategies will replace depopulation," Attride reports. Davis told her, "These stamping out policies have been in place for quite some time. There’s a reason it exists and one of them is animal welfare issues –– these birds get really sick… and [rarely] recover."

The new plan looks to incorporate vaccinating chickens against the disease. "The USDA has given conditional approval to a Zoetis vaccine H5N2 for chickens, but has yet to give the go ahead for vaccinating commercial poultry flocks against avian flu," Attride adds. But "many countries won’t accept vaccinated chickens. The U.S. is the second-largest exporter of poultry and should a vaccine be rolled out, the federal government would have to negotiate agreements with its trading partners."  

"The plan’s success hinges on industry adoption and global trade acceptance," reports Jim Wiesemeyer of Farm Journal. "Balancing effective disease control with maintaining poultry exports remains a critical challenge."