Bird flu is back, big time.
In the past 30 days, there have been 29 commercial and backyard poultry flocks infected, affecting over 3.5 million birds. There was also one dairy cow detection last week in Idaho, the first in the U.S. since mid-September. We continue to see wild birds, wild mammals, and domesticated cats with infections, as well.
Federal response is definitely not the same as it was a few years ago. Staff cuts at USDA and CDC, funding cuts to state health departments, and ICE raids on farms have changed the landscape drastically. And with the federal government shutdown, a weekly call for animal health labs has been suspended, and there’s far less communication with states.
The Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, says they’re actually well prepared, having invested $500 million in biosecurity measures, and $100 million in vaccine research for animals. Plus, the CDC flu team has mostly avoided the staffing cuts that have impacted so many other teams, so they’re available to work quickly if at any point there’s a suspected human case.
Still, we’re poised with limited federal data, fewer staff members, and more distrust of government health officials at the verge of a flu season with our lowest predicted flu vaccine uptake in recent memory.
We don’t think there’s a serious risk for employers just yet, but we do think you should be prepared for fluctuating egg and poultry prices for the foreseeable future.
Sources: Axios, APHIS, NY Times
We’ll share this Vox article with a caveat: the title is alarmist, but we think it’s worth a read for the info about pricing, why the egg industry’s vaccination plans haven’t moved forward, and the real costs of bird flu. That said, we do think bird flu, like most other pathogens, will come and go with time.