Minnesota farmers, officials worry over signaled shift in federal bird flu protocols

The Trump administration says it has a new plan to fight bird flu, bring egg prices down and stop poultry culling.

Agriculture officials are getting anxious waiting for the details.

"Just this week, the new administration said we may be looking at, you know, not depopulating birds, so we're trying to understand what that would mean," Minnesota Secretary of Agriculture Thom Petersen told a state Legislature committee this week.

He wondered aloud if that would mean "we wouldn't pay the farmers" to cull flocks, as has been the practice.

"This is kind of a day-to-day piece," Petersen said.

The bird flu outbreak recently entered its fourth year, and Trump officials say the current weapons battling the virus — enhanced security measures on farms and culling all birds at the site of an outbreak — are not working.

On Sunday, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that, rather than culling flocks to prevent the spread of the virus, the Trump administration would have a "better, smarter perimeter."

But the statement — and the promise of a new plan to be released — left some industry officials filling in the blanks.

"We interpret the Trump administration's comment to suggest they will continue to promote the already utilized control areas in conjunction with additional, newly available tools such as vaccination, to diminish the presence of virus in the environment, thereby reducing the number of birds that are humanely depopulated," read a statement from Minnesota State Veterinarian Dr. Brian Hoefs.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture conditionally approved a bird flu vaccine for use in poultry.

A spokesperson for the vaccine maker, Zoetis, said the USDA would handle the distribution of any avian influenza vaccines.

But the federal funding freeze, which has brought some grant funding for conservation programs across farm country to a standstill and dried up supplies for some food shelves in Minnesota, has also hit those government experts tasked with handling the nation's response to bird flu.

Tanya Espinosa, a USDA spokesperson, said this week that some agency staff were initially fired but are now being rehired.

"Although several positions supporting HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters," the agency wrote in an email.

The White House is under growing pressure to not only stem the high cost of eggs but also to rein in the relentless spread of H5N1, as the virus is officially known.

More than 162 million birds have been killed by the virus or culled to prevent its spread since the beginning of the outbreak in February 2022, according to the USDA

The USDA has paid poultry operations $1.1 billion in reimbursement for the mandatory culling, according to a federal spending database.

Cutting off those indemnity payments, a scenario Minnesota's agriculture commissioner raised this week, would be a significant shift in the nation's approach to livestock disease response.

The current approach has kept the food supply safe, even as it has caused the price of eggs to skyrocket again. The culling of millions of egg-laying hens has resulted in supply issues.

With the virus spreading into dairy cows, and increasingly into people working with those animals, public health experts are concerned about the virus mutating into one that can be passed from person to person, potentially prompting a pandemic.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat and ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the mass layoffs add "chaos" into an already precarious situation that requires "a clear path forward."

Rep. Angie Craig, the Minnesota Democrat whose district extends into southern Minnesota and ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee, called the layoffs of bird flu staff "a serious misstep" that would increase risk for farmers and costs at the grocery store for families.

Some farmers also are wary of vaccinations because of export concerns.

The National Turkey Federation, United Egg Producers and two dairy groups last week pressed the USDA to "bring a new sense of urgency and preparedness to the ongoing response by supporting the development of effective ... vaccinations for dairy cows, turkeys and egg-laying hens."

But the association that represents chickens raised for meat was not part of that letter.

Compared with eggs and turkey, exports are a much larger share of the nation's chicken industry. Many countries restrict imports of poultry products from vaccinated birds for fear the vaccine could mask infection.

The National Chicken Council wants "robust trade protections" in the event of a vaccine program, and several members of Congress have raised the export issue as a barrier to vaccinating any poultry.