To continue supporting highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) relief efforts, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has approved the transfer of $400 million from the Commodity Credit Corporation to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
This is the third transfer of emergency funding to APHIS this year. The first was approximately $130 million in March and the second was $263 million in April.
“Continuing our nationwide response to highly pathogenic avian influenza is critical to minimizing the impact on our nation’s poultry industry,” said USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt in a statement May 27. “Safeguarding U.S. poultry and egg producers from the effects avian influenza could have on agriculture and trade is a critical aspect of this response, and this funding will allow APHIS personnel to continue to deploy and support the emergency wherever they are needed.”
APHIS efforts to tackle HPAI include implementing quarantine restrictions, depopulating affected flocks, disposing of depopulated birds, cleaning and eliminating the virus from affected premises and conducting surveillance in surrounding areas. APHIS has 1,125 employees in the U.S. working to contain the outbreak.
Since the previous funding transfer in April, there have been HPAI detections in 151 flocks, impacting more than 10.8 million commercial and backyard birds.
As of this month, HPAI has been detected in 35 states, impacting more than 37.9 million birds.
One of the latest HPAI outbreaks at a commercial farm occurred May 23 in Pennsylvania, impacting 4,700 ducks. Another was May 21 at a Minnesota Turkey farm, affecting 57,000 birds.
To learn more about HPAI cases in North American commercial poultry flocks, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.
