Trump USDA Announces $1 Billion Bird Flu Spend, $100 Million for ‘New Generation’ Vaccines

USDA chief Brooke Rollins recently debuted a bold new proposal to counter bird flu in the poultry industry as egg prices remain astronomically high.

Via United States Department of Agriculture (emphasis added):

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins today announced a $1 billion-dollar comprehensive strategy to curb highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), protect the U.S. poultry industry, and lower egg prices. This is in addition to funding already being provided to indemnify growers for depopulated flocks…
The five-pronged strategy includes an additional $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for affected farmers, and $100 million for vaccine research, action to reduce regulatory burdens, and exploring temporary import options.

Regarding the biosecurity component, the USDA will send epidemiologists to farms to assess security risks via “biosecurity audits.”

Biosecurity audits will be expanded. Free biosecurity audits will continue for all HPAI-affected farms. Shortcomings for HPAI-affected farms must be addressed to remain eligible for indemnification for future infections within this outbreak. Biosecurity audits will be encouraged and made available to surrounding, non-affected farms.
USDA will deploy 20 trained epidemiologists as part of its increased biosecurity audits and Wildlife Biosecurity Assessments to provide actionable and timely advice to producers on how to reduce HPAI risk at their facilities. These experts will help improve current biosecurity measures to focus on protecting against spread through wild birds in addition to lateral spread.

$100 million of the appropriated funds will go to “new generation vaccines,” likely meaning mRNA shots similar to the COVID “vaccines”:

USDA will be hyper-focused on a targeted and thoughtful strategy for potential new generation vaccines, therapeutics, and other innovative solutions to minimize depopulation of egg laying chickens along with increased bio-surveillance and other innovative solutions targeted at egg laying chickens in and around outbreaks. Up to a $100 million investment will be available for innovation in this area.

The rest of the budget will largely go to “financial relief for affected farmers,” a euphemism for government pay-offs to poultry farmers after their livestock has been culled by the state — one of the main drivers, ironically, of higher egg prices that this new USDA initiative is ostensibly designed to combat.

The mass culling of egg-laying chickens — an estimated 166 million of them since 2022 — might not curb the spread of avian flu, but it certainly works for drumming up terror in the public and increasing egg prices.

It also generates perverse incentives for egg farmers who can simply hand over their flocks to the government and collect cash — while also fetching higher prices for the eggs they are allowed to bring to market.

Via The Defender (emphasis added):

According to epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher of the McCullough Foundation, bird culls are ineffective.
“The single most effective action to reduce egg prices in the long-term is to stop the practice of mass depopulation, which has led to a costly and ineffective cycle that not only wastes taxpayer dollars but also worsens the spread of H5N1.”
Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough said the USDA plan potentially incentivizes measures that have not been effective.
“By taking government money to cull healthy birds and then bring eggs to market at higher prices, big egg producers have perverse incentives to keep the poorly conceived biosecurity measures going,” McCullough said.
According to CNN, culling has contributed to higher egg prices, due to a reduced egg supply and because taxpayers are “footing the bill for the dead birds.”
Over the past three years, the U.S. government has issued $1.25 billion in compensation to farmers who have had their chickens culled. Approximately 20% of those payouts “have gone to farms that have become infected multiple times,” CNN reported.

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