March 6, 2025 (EIRNS)—On Feb. 26 U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote in the Wall Street Journal that USDA would spend $1 billion on a five-point plan to fight the bird flu, HPAI (the highly pathogenic avian influenza). The plan includes financial aid to farmers who are losing millions, increased medical research, increases for biosecurity, and stabilizing egg prices.
Better surveillance of the disease is called for, and the USDA has granted a “conditional approval” for a vaccine that could be administered to domestic flocks, according to CNN. Regulations such as California Proposition 12, which requires minimum space for poultry, will most likely be dismantled.
Despite these efforts, any improvements will be slow to come, and egg prices, which have doubled over the last year, are expected to continue to rise. A few weeks ago, egg rustlers hijacked a tractor-trailer carrying 100,000 eggs, expected to fetch $40,000, in south central Pennsylvania. The USDA favors egg imports from Türkiye.
