(WGHP) — A bipartisan collection of senators, including North Carolina’s, penned a letter to President Donald Trump’s newly-confirmed secretary of agriculture hoping to define and enact a strategy to combat the growing issue of bird flu.
On Wednesday, senators from multiple states, including Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd (R-NC), signed the letter outlining proposals around the federal response to bird flu.
The letter, addressed to Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins, reads in part, “We write to ask that you enhance the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) response to the ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in our nation’s animal agriculture sector, which we greatly appreciate you announcing as a top priority in your testimony before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.”
Bird flu has been impacting egg-laying poultry populations across the United States, spiking egg prices and spreading to other livestock, such as cows.
“We support measures that have been proposed to you by egg and turkey farmers, many of whose operations have suffered HPAI outbreaks. These measures include the following:
- An aggressive, forward-looking strategy for vaccination in affected laying hens and turkeys, including the acquisition of vaccine stockpiles, field trials of vaccines, the development of more practical methods of vaccine administration, and outreach to trading partners to ensure trade is not significantly impacted and that they understand the need for vaccines and abide by international standards for maintaining trade;
- An HPAI Strategic Initiative to engage experts within industry, universities, and government to expand knowledge and develop novel methods of prevention, detection, and response; and
- Movement controls that apply to all animals that present risks and support for states moving quickly through the first four stages of USDA’s National Milk Testing Strategy.”
They also propose enhancements to a December 2024 rule requiring biosecurity audits of farms previously impacted by bird flu or farms within a certain distance of impacted farms, stating that there aren’t enough auditors trained for this task.
Additionally, the senators ask for the secretary to change the indemnity rates for farmers who lose their livestock in situations such as bird flu outbreaks. In this situation, the indemnity rate is the amount a person is paid to compensate them for the loss of their livestock or poultry. The letter alleges the indemnity rate remains too low to properly compensate farmers.
You can read the full text of the letter below:
The post NC Sens. Budd, Tillis among senators calling for action on bird flu in letter to new agriculture secretary first appeared on Enegxi News – News As It’s Happening.
