Is It Time to Rethink the Culling of Poultry in Response to Bird Flu?
The Trump administration plans to roll out a new strategy against the bird flu.
I have been covering the bird flu (aka Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza/HPAI) since 2022. Over that time, over 150 million birds have been culled in an effort to “slow the spread”.
How has that worked out? The current numbers suggest…not well.
Over December and January, owners of commercial, backyard, and hobbyist chicken flocks had to cull 41.4 million birds because of influenza exposure—three times more than the same period last year. The past two months are the most destructive stretch of the North American outbreak, which initially arrived three years ago via migrating wild birds from Europe.
Perhaps another approach would be better? For example, allowing the birds to be exposed and infected. The survivors could then be bred to create a more flu-resistant generation.
https://twitter.com/P_McCulloughMD/status/1817617275492479411?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Even with the most dreadful diseases, there are usually survivors. Let’s look at myxomatosis (essentially rabbit pox).
For example, myxomatosis was introduced to Australia in the 1950s to control the rabbit population. This virus initially reduced the wild rabbit population by 95%. The disease caused a rapid decline in rabbit numbers by 1953. However, over time, rabbits have developed increased resistance to the virus.
The constant culling is not allowing our domestic flocks to develop resistance to this flu, and may make them even more susceptible to other diseases because they are not allowed to build up their immunity.
And while our media worries about the mental health and livelihood of federal workers, where is the concern about the poultry farmers? Culling has the potential to create severe psychological effects on farmers.
At the beginning of the worst outbreak of bird flu, 3.2 million birds were culled between October 2021 and September 2022.
One of those farmers affected in 2021 was Lucy Sanderson, from North Yorkshire, who says people are not aware of the mental health impact culling birds had on farmers.
“It was awful. I cried for a week – and I thought I was a strong person,” she said.
“As well as losing my job, my income, my everyday life, I also ruined my staff’s lives as I had to make them redundant. The knock-on effect was huge.
Furthermore, the virus has shown resilience despite culling efforts. In the US, the tools used to contain previous outbreaks, including culling, are not working as effectively this time.
Because laying hens are so susceptible to the H5N1 virus, which can wipe out entire flocks within days of the first infection, egg producers have been on the frontline in the fight against various bird flu strains for years now.
But this moment feels different. Egg producers and the American Egg Board are begging for a new approach.
Many infectious disease experts agree that the risks to human health of continuing current protocols is unsustainable, because of the strain of bird flu driving this outbreak.
Let’s take a look at costs for a moment. Government spending on culling and compensating farmers is substantial, with the USDA having spent over $1.7 billion on bird flu control since 2022. There are also other bird flu response expenses.
The USDA has so far put more than $2.1 billion into reimbursing poultry and dairy farmers for losses due to the bird flu and other measures to control the spread on farms. Federal agencies have also put $292 million into developing and stockpiling bird flu vaccines for animals and people.
Finally, culling entire flocks can result in the loss of valuable genetic lines, particularly in specialized or heritage breeds.
For all these reasons, the Trump administration is now considering changing the federal response to bird flu.
The federal government will seek “better ways, with biosecurity and medication and so on” rather than the current standard practice of destroying all the birds on a farm when an infection is detected, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said Sunday on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”
Hasset said the administration planned to announce further details this week. He said they were “working with all the best people in government, including academics around the country and around the world,” to get the plan ready.
It certainly has the potential to be more effective, both in terms of costs as well as health, than the mass slaughtering of uninfected animals.
As egg prices soar, Trump administration plans new strategy to fight bird flu https://t.co/EmaQdJT04m
— 16Rock (@16rock_rock) February 20, 2025
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Comments
“The constant culling is not allowing our domestic flocks to develop resistance to this flu, and may make them even more susceptible to other diseases because they are not allowed to build up their immunity.”
Been saying this for months. It’s been obvious that culling has nothing to do with protecting flocks. It’s meant to prevent natural immunity from arising within them to protect the market for vaccines.
Hence the “better ways, with biosecurity and medication and so on.”
*Avian Warp Speed*
Screw that.
Unless you were in the meetings (and provide proof), you know nothing.
For the non-TDS: Donald Trump may make mistakes, but he rarely makes the same one twice. And with a number of vaccine skeptics in his cabinet, I suspect he’s looking at such practices as “free-range chickens” and other approaches that have proven less effective at producing the meat and eggs people need.
Big Pharma and their pals hate natural immunity
Cull the bureaucracy first, chickens second.
best idea I’ve heard so far this year
Murdering the chickens was always a horrendous total fuckery
They live substandard lives to begin with
In
Gone
Murdering all your animals has to tear your heart out
Doing nothing at all is always an option.
And, often, it is the best option.
If there be nary a cull, a culinary fowl bonanza will replace this foul situation.
well written, Sir.
I could’ve wrote that. Well I could. Almost. I could’ve almost…….. Oh, damn you Howard! That was fantastic!
Birds do not fly. Spread is localized. Scared of getting the flu by eating chicvken. There is this thing that makes sure that eating chicken does not spread the virus. It’s called cooking.
Birds DO fly. And when you don’t put a roof between your flocks and the wild bird poop, that doesn’t help.
Sorry but chickens do not. fly.
Then what does flew the coop mean?
Chickens can and do fly, although not as well as songbirds.
Birds in cages CAN’T fly.
I think the point people are trying to make is that bird flu is not transmitted between flocks by chickens, but by random wild birds.
People used to know this stuff. I remember when a neighborhood kid had the measles and everybody would basically go over and spend time at that kid’s house to catch measles too because then you would never have to worry about catching it at an inconvenient time. Same concept.
And every once in a while a kid died from it.
Short answer, “Yes”. Long answer, “Heck yes.”
If infected birds wipe out the entire flock, that serves as a natural culling so why not wait and see if you can find infection resistant birds?
Exactly. Test and isolate then study what happens.
Obi Wan could point at your comment and say… well, something. Nothing comes to mind.
“You will never find a more wretched coop of scummy Milanese.”
Nice comment.
Don’t cull, let natural immunity build and tell people to not eat raw chicken or raw eggs.
Eating raw meat is stupid, I used to raise chickens, because of coyotes, I made large pens using dog kennel panels, 10’x6′. on the previous years garden spot. Alternated garden and pen annually. It worked well. Varmints went into maggot buckets, which chickens considered a treat. Greatly lowered fly population that way. Waste not, want not.
“Waste not, want not.”
I think that’s a quote from Elon Musk.
Theres an evil hidden in plain sight and never questioned-vaccines. ALL comercial birds are injected day 1. There is no chicken product sold under USAD that isnt vaccinated. These bird flu outbreaks could be part of more than a mere migratory bird infection. NOBODY has vaccines analyized. An example of proposterous vaccine practices, Pigs are being hit with squaline, a substance tied to gulf wat syndrome. Who is questioning BIGPHARM about what they are putting into these vaccines MANDATED BY THE GOVT!?! So maybe the chickens are being hit with something that may cause illness months down the road. A REAL thought about a REAL problem.
Birds raised for egg production don’t even begin to start laying eggs until around 4-6 months after the bird was hatched. Birds raised for their meat are ready for market after only a couple of months. Poultry prices have not risen nearly as much, if at all, compared to egg prices. Why does the flu target older birds raised for eggs but not the younger birds raised for meat?
Because of the churn rate, an empty broiler barn can be throughly disinfected every two months between chick batches. A laying hen barn houses a flock for years and the cleaning can’t be as deep and thorough when it’s occupied.
I’d wager because the whole Chicken Flu claims are another Scam just like the Covid was.
Karl doesn’t hold back: https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=252838
“Not cull (kill) every bird in a state or region as that denies natural selection its proper role in attenuating future outbreaks.
Mass-culling a disease that does not pass to humans has no preventive purpose and serves only to create shortages and screw people.
Which thus, by manifest evidence, was their intent.”
Don’t let them weaponize this nonsense like the fauci-chicom flu
My wife’s son was a manager of a chicken farm for over 30 years. He told me that a virus dies as soon as the chicken dies. Therefore, there is no reason to dispose of a chicken. It just needs to be processed. As far as the eggs go, cooking kills the virus. As long as you don’t use it raw, you are safe. A warning label on the eggs should suffice just line peanut allergies.
But it’s quite common to eat eggs partially cooked – sunny side up, over easy, poached, and soft-boiled recipes all leave the yolk nearly raw, and eggnog uses both the yolk and the white raw. Even when I cook eggs to my taste – the yolk cooked through entirely – there’s certainly a risk of cross-contamination from utensils used with the egg before it’s completely cooked.
So the FDA Food Police do the testing and so, do they use the same “Polymerase Chain Reaction” (PCR) Test that was used to hype the Covid; that was invented by Dr. Kary Mullis to win the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry as a Laboratory Tool to increase the sample size of DNA so that it could be investigated; BUT NEVER WAS TO BE USED AS A CLINICAL TEST TO DETERMINE WHAT MADE ANYTHING SICK??
The mere presence of the DNA of a potential pathogen does not in and of itself make anything sick. Our Dairy Barns are loaded with E. Coli, but we don’t kill the Dairy Cows account of it.
First, people should realize that the FDA is NOT the saviors that they profess to be. If you believe that they are above reproach and should always be given the benefit of doubt, I urge you to examine the details of “The Great Chilean Grape Scare of 1989” where they sampled a cargo of fresh fruit from Chile to unbelievably find two grape berries that they alleged proved tampering, while finding no presence of Cyanide that a Political Group had claimed to have injected. A Cargo of hundreds of thousands of 18 pound (Nine Kilo) boxes with thousands of berries in each AND IN A FEAT OF EXTRAORDINARY LUCK, FOUND TWO BERRIES?? If the berries had been injected in Chile as claimed, the 14 day trip to Port Philadelphia would likely have found the berries to have rotted. What was determined was that the punctures were administered in the FDA Lab by one or more of their “Scientists.” It would be hard to believe, but given the last 4 years with “Scientists” of NIAID demonstrating to have been “politicized”, it may not longer be dismissed.
I tried to learn what precise test that they use to determine Chicken Flu Virus exists in a flock, and struck out. But even if present, there just is no reason it seems to destroy flocks to adversely impact the price of eggs and chicken meat. SO WHO IS CHECKING THE FDA FOOD POLICE, ESPECIALLY SINCE THERE SEEMS TO BE SO LITTLE RISK TO HUMANS BEYOND A BAD COLD??