A cry out of Arizona for a poultry vaccine to end the devastating spread of bird flu

Poultry vaccines are available to producers who need to control  Bronchitis, Bursal Disease, Encephalitis, Fowl Pox, Laryngotracheitis, Marek’s Disease, Mycoplasma Gallisepticum, Newcastle Disease, Pigeon Pox, Reovirus, and Tenosynovitis. Those are available from just one company, Duluth, GA-based Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc.

However, no vaccine is available for the avian flu, which has taken out 170 million birds.

That’s because, until very recently, the fear of reaction from foreign markets has been allowed to take precedence over highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).  The fear is that some U.S. trading partners do not recognize countries that vaccinate as being free of HPAI and block imports from those countries.

A posting on the website of Arizona’s largest egg producer advocates for poultry vaccines. Glenn Hickman, chief executive of Hickman’s Family Farm, reports that “bird flu has resulted in the deaths of 98 percent of our hens here in Arixxona — approximately 6 million birds.”

“This devastating turn of events means the loss of life for the hens, the loss of jobs for hundreds of employees, and the loss of an invaluable food resource both locally and far beyond this valley, “Hickman added. Hickman said the disastrous events could have been avoided if a poultry vaccine had been available for HPAI.

As bird flu struck in early 2022, former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s policy was to eradicate infected poultry, including backyard and commercial flocks. Bird flu vaccines were off the table.

“The recent outbreak of avian flu at our westside farms was a tragedy that did not have to happen,” Hickman says in his post. “European countries have been vaccinating their flocks for a couple of years and are gaining the upper hand in controlling this disease. That vaccine is made here in the U.S., but we export to other countries while our flocks go unprotected. We are effectively subsidizing the meat bird industry at the expense of the egg industry and our consumers. They are strongly against vaccines because they feel the export markets would be closed to their surplus products.”

He urged contact with elected officials and the USDA   “so we can start protecting our flocks in this country.”

Research and development for a bird flu vaccine for poultry was included in the new Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke L. Rollins’s first five-part strategy for controlling HAPI.  No timeline was provided for when a poultry vaccine will be available in the U.S.

Drinking water, eye drops, and injections are used to vaccinate birds if one ever becomes available in the United States.

Dairy cows are more of a priority for a bird flu vaccine. More than 1,000 herds have been affected. Last month, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia tested an mRNA vaccine against avian influenza in calves with promising results.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes the current risk to the general public from bird flu viruses is low. However, there could be an increase in human infections resulting from bird and animal exposures, even if the risk of these viruses spreading from birds to people has not increased.

House cats are emerging as a threat for infection in people. The virus has about a 70 percent fatality rate in cats and some public health officials say there is an increasing chance that the virus will further mutate and be able to jump species more easily. That is how the dairy cattle have been infected.

(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)