This always seemed like the obvious outcome:
When the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus made its first appearance at a U.S. poultry farm in February 2022, roughly 29,000 turkeys at an Indiana facility were sacrificed in an attempt to avert a larger outbreak.
It didn’t work. Three years later, highly pathogenic avian influenza has spread to all 50 states. The number of commercial birds that have died or been killed exceeds 166 million and the price of eggs is at an all-time high.
Poultry producers, infectious disease experts and government officials now concede that H5N1 is likely here to stay. That recognition is prompting some of them to question whether the long-standing practice of culling every single bird on an infected farm is sustainable over the long-term.
Killing 166 million birds hasn’t helped poultry farmers stop H5N1. Is there a better way?
The virus is now spreading in perhaps hundreds of species, not just chickens. If it breathes, it can probably catch H5N1.
Like lock downs, the killing of 166+ million chickens caused eggs to skyrocket in price – without ending a pandemic.
Also this: “The USDA reimburses farmers for eggs and birds that have to be killed to contain an outbreak, but not for birds that die of the flu.” Farmers are reimbursed but consumers who are now paying $7 to $10 per dozen eggs are not reimbursed.
The eventual solution will be immunity – either natural or vaccine induced and/or the virus mutates to a less virulent form. Everything else seems like a lot of hand waving.
