The Trump administration has announced a $1 billion initiative to fight avian influenza outbreaks, support farmers, and reduce the cost of eggs for Americans.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and the USDA revealed the new strategy in a press release, outlining measures to stabilize the poultry industry.
Rollins and Trump hope the plan will address the continued challenges caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) for egg suppliers and the impact the flu has had on grocery prices, as previously covered by The Dallas Express.
“The Biden administration did little to address the repeated outbreaks and high egg prices that followed. By contrast, the Trump administration is taking the issue seriously. To that end, today I am announcing a comprehensive strategy to combat avian influenza. The Agriculture Department will invest up to $1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again.” Rollins said.
The program will allocate $500 million toward enhanced “biosecurity” protocols.
Additionally, the USDA will work to protect farms from wild bird-transmitted flu outbreaks, which account for 83% of HPAI cases. According to USDA data, farms that adhere to these enhanced biosecurity measures have drastically reduced outbreaks, with just one reported case among 150 facilities.
An additional $400 million will be dedicated to providing financial relief for poultry farmers, hopefully speeding up the repopulation of flocks decimated by disease in recent years.
Rollins also addressed the issue of price gaps between states, particularly in places like California, where regulatory requirements have driven up egg prices 60% higher than in other parts of the country.
The remaining $100 million will go into an investment plan that will allegedly focus on vaccine research and the development of new strategies to limit the need for large-scale culling of egg-laying chickens.
“We are working with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful spending. We will repurpose some of those dollars by investing in long-term solutions to avian flu, which has resulted in about 166 million laying hens being culled since 2022,” Rollins concluded.