The deadly avian influenza that has been circulating around the world since 2021 has killed tens of millions of birds, forcing U.S. poultry farmers to slaughter entire flocks and causing a short but alarming drop in egg production. caused a rise in prices.
Most recently, dairy cows have been infected in several states, and in Texas, officials announced this week that at least one person who had close contact with the cow was infected.
This epidemic has proven to be particularly costly to American taxpayers.
Last year, the Department of Agriculture paid poultry producers more than $500 million for forcibly culled turkeys, chickens, and layer hens after the H5N1 influenza strain was detected on their farms.
Officials said the compensation program is aimed at encouraging farms to promptly report outbreaks. That's because the government pays for birds killed through culling, not for birds that die from disease. The agency says early reporting can reduce the spread of the virus to neighboring farms.
Culling is often done by increasing the heat in barns housing thousands of birds, a method that many veterinarians and animal rights groups say causes heatstroke and unnecessary suffering. Pointed out.
Among the biggest recipients of the agency's bird flu compensation fund from 2022 to this year were Jenny-O Turkey Stores, which received more than $88 million, and Tyson Foods, which paid out nearly $30 million. . Both companies reported billions of dollars in profits last year, despite losses.
Overall, the bulk of government payments went to the nation's largest food companies, which is not at all surprising given the dominance of American companies in meat and egg production.
According to the agency's website, more than 82 million captive birds have been culled since February 2022. For comparison, the U.S. poultry industry produces more than 9 billion chickens and turkeys each year.
The compensation tally was obtained by animal welfare advocacy group Our Honor, which filed a Freedom of Information Act petition with the USDA. Advocacy group Farm Forward helped further analyze the data.
The details of the compensation have not been made public, but officials confirmed the figures are accurate.
For critics of large-scale commercial farming, the payments highlight serious flaws in the corporate subsidy system. Last year, that subsidy directed more than $30 billion of taxpayer dollars to the agriculture sector, much of it for crop insurance, commodity price support and disaster relief. .
But they argue that bird flu-related payments are troubling for other reasons. By unconditionally compensating commercial farmers for their losses, the federal government is encouraging poultry farmers to continue the very practices that increase the risk of transmission, thus increasing the need for poultry farming. is. Future culling and compensation.
“These payments are crazy and dangerous,” said Andrew DeCoris, executive director of FarmForward. “Not only are we wasting taxpayers' money on problems caused by profit-making corporations, but we are not giving them any incentive to make changes.”
Ashley Peterson, senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at the National Poultry Council, an industry group, disputed suggestions that government payments reinforce questionable farming practices.
“Regardless of how affected birds are raised, compensation is available to help farmers control and eradicate the virus,” she said in an email. She added that these criticisms are the work of “vegan extremist groups clinging to the issue to advance their own agenda.”
In a statement, the USDA defended the program, saying “early reporting can more quickly stop the spread of the virus to nearby farms.”
Modern agricultural practices have made animal protein much more affordable and meat consumption has nearly doubled in the past century, but there are downsides to the industry's reliance on so-called intensive animal feeding operations. There is also a side. Researchers say the giant sheds that produce almost 99 percent of the country's eggs and meat emit vast amounts of animal waste that can degrade the environment.
And infectious agents spread more easily in crowded buildings.
“If you want to create an ideal environment for pathogens to mutate, industrial farms are almost the perfect environment,” says Gwendolen Reyes, a scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute who focuses on meat production.・Mr. Ilg says:
Modern chickens, which are genetically homogeneous and designed to grow rapidly, exacerbate these risks. Researchers say selective breeding has significantly reduced the time it takes to raise barrel-breasted broilers for human consumption, but the birds are more susceptible to infection and death. This may help explain why more than 90 percent of chickens infected with H5N1 die within 48 hours.
Frank Reese, a fourth-generation turkey farmer in Kansas, said modern wide-white turkeys can be slaughtered in half the time of traditional breeds. But rapid growth comes at a cost. Birds are prone to health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure and arthritis.
“They have weak immune systems. Bless those fat little turkey hearts, because they're morbidly obese,” said Mr Rees, 75, who pasture-raises rare heritage breeds. “That's the weight of an 11-year-old child weighing 400 pounds.”
Highly pathogenic avian influenza has been circulating since 1996, but by the time it emerged in North America at the end of 2021, the virus had evolved to be more deadly. This led to him culling nearly 60 million captive birds in the United States. They harvested countless wild animals and mammals ranging from skunks to sea lions. Last week, federal authorities first confirmed the virus had been detected in dairy cows in Kansas, Texas, Michigan, New Mexico and Idaho. The pathogen has also been linked to a small number of human infections and deaths, mostly among workers who handle live poultry, and authorities say the risk to humans remains low.
The virus is highly contagious among birds and spread through nasal secretions, saliva, and feces, making it difficult to contain. Even though many wild ducks show no signs of disease, migratory waterfowl are the biggest source of infection. Viruses can enter barns through dust particles and the soles of farmers' boots.
The number of cases in North America has fluctuated over the past three years, but the overall number has been decreasing since 2022, according to the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
On Tuesday, Cal-Maine Foods, the nation's largest egg producer, announced it had halted production at its Texas facility and culled more than 1.6 million birds after detecting avian influenza.
Federal officials are debating whether to vaccinate commercial chickens, an effort that has divided opinion in the industry, in part because of trade restrictions that would harm the $6 billion poultry export sector. This may encourage
Many scientists are concerned that the next pandemic could arise from a human-adapted bird flu and are urging the White House to launch a vaccination campaign.
The agency's Livestock Compensation Program, part of the Farm Bill passed by Congress in 2018, pays farmers 75 percent of the value of animals lost to disease or natural disasters. Since 2022, the program has distributed more than $1 billion to affected farmers.
Critics say the program allows farmers to euthanize their herds by shutting off the ventilation system in their barns and blowing in hot air, a method that can take several hours and is associated with animal cruelty. It also points out that it is promoting Surviving chickens and turkeys are often rescued with just a twist of the neck.
Crystal Heath, a veterinarian and co-founder of Our Honor, said the American Veterinary Medical Association, in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, recommended that ventilation arrests be used only in “restricted circumstances.” He added that the majority of farms rely on this process as it is cheap and easy to carry out.
“All you need is duct tape, a tarp, and some rental heaters,” Dr. Heath says. “But ventilation arrest plus is especially bad because it can take three to five hours for the bird to die.”
Thousands of veterinarians have signed a petition asking the association to reclassify ventilation shutdowns as “not recommended”, and other methods using carbon dioxide or nitrogen, even though they are more expensive. It also claims to be far more humane. From the start of the outbreak to December 2023, 66 million chickens and turkeys were culled due to ventilation shutdowns, an increase in the number of chickens and turkeys culled, according to an analysis of federal data by the Animal Welfare Institute, which obtained data from Freedom. This is equivalent to about 80% of the total chicken and turkey consumption. Information Act requests.
Last summer, the institute filed a petition asking the Department of Agriculture to require farmers to develop more humane population reduction plans as a condition of receiving compensation. The agency has not yet responded to the petition.
Tyson and Jenny O., the top recipients of federal compensation, both used ventilation shutdowns, according to an analysis of federal data. Tyson declined to comment for this article, and Hormel, which owns Jenny Orbland, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Some animal rights activists point out that the recent outbreak occurred naturally and question whether killing all birds on affected farms is the right approach. When the H5N1 virus struck California's Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary in February 2023, killing three birds, the farm's owners decided to pursue state-mandated culling. Instead, California agriculture officials cited a recently established exemption for farms that don't produce food that exempt them from taking the birds as long as strict quarantine measures are in place for 120 days. Stated.
In the weeks that followed, 26 of the farm's 160 chickens, ducks and turkeys died from the virus, while others appeared to have symptoms, said Christine Morrissey, the sanctuary's executive director. It is said that he survived, including what he could see.
She said the experience suggests mass culling may be unnecessary. “More research and effort is needed to find alternative ways to respond to this virus, as population decline is frightening and does not solve the immediate problem,” Morrissey said.
As the migration north begins in earnest, poultry farmers like Caleb Barron are holding their breath. Barron, the California organic farmer, said there is only so much he can do to protect Fogline Farm's livestock, given that the birds spend most of their lives outdoors.
So far, the birds are unharmed. Perhaps it's because Mr. Barron raises a hardier breed of chicken. Or maybe it's because his birds have a relatively good life, including high-quality feed and low stress.
“Or maybe it was just luck,” he said.