Chicken, egg companies spar over bird-flu vaccinations

Egg companies are calling for a stronger government response to the bird flu outbreak with the virus roiling farms and sending egg prices soaring. They are also petitioning regulators to greenlight a vaccine that could be administered on farms, a sharp reversal from their position a few years ago.

“The path that we’re on right now isn’t sustainable for the industry," said Dr. Craig Rowles, vaccine adviser to an industry trade group and science chief at Versova, one of the largest U.S. egg producers. “It’s not sustainable for our customers who are buying $8 eggs now."

Companies that process chickens for meat, including Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride and Perdue Farms, are saying not so fast. Bird-flu vaccinations, they said, could embroil their export business—worth roughly $5 billion annually.

If the U.S. began vaccinating flocks, countries that import chicken products would cut off purchases of American poultry, officials said. Each country would need to sign off on the U.S.’s vaccination strategy before accepting imports again.

“Vaccination would have a devastating impact," said Harrison Kircher, president of the National Chicken Council, the trade group for poultry processors, in a statement this month.

The Agriculture Department last week granted a conditional license to a vaccine for highly pathogenic avian influenza, which authorities said has resulted in the deaths of roughly 160 million chickens and turkeys since 2022. However, the vaccine hasn’t been authorized for use on farms, and poultry producers can’t buy it.

“This is simply a normal step in the research and development phase, not in the implementation of a vaccine strategy," a USDA representative said.

Officials in the Trump administration have said they are receptive to a change in the bird-flu policy, including whether chickens should be killed when the virus is identified in a flock—as is the current practice.

USDA plans to roll out a comprehensive strategy to combat bird flu in the coming days, the agency representative said, adding that the administration is committed to safeguarding poultry farms and keeping egg prices affordable for families.

“This is going to take a little while to bring these prices back down," Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a Fox News interview last weekend.

‘Something different’

Two years ago, egg producers ruled out vaccinating flocks against bird flu, even though the outbreak helped drive prices to what were then record levels. At the time, producers balked at the cost and effort associated with having farmworkers administer shots to the more than 300 million U.S. hens.

Industry officials have since changed their tune. Efforts to tame the disease’s spread have fallen short, and health officials have raised concerns about possible mutations that could enable more rapid or human-to-human transmission.

Egg farms have been spending millions of dollars over the past few years installing motion-detecting sound cannons and laser systems to shoo away wild birds potentially carrying the disease.

The avian flu has a nearly 100% mortality rate in chickens and has primarily been spread through wild birds, such as ducks and geese. It is so contagious that even a gust of wind can carry wild-bird droppings toward a barn vent and spread the virus.

Egg industry lobbyists pointed to France as an example where a bird-flu-vaccination campaign in 2023 helped the country’s duck production recover.

“We have to do something different for the egg industry to survive," said Rowles, the Versova science chief. “Continually depopulating birds just isn’t working."

The Agriculture Department last week gave conditional approval to animal-health company Zoetis for its bird-flu vaccine for poultry. The next step in the process would be getting commercial approval. Even if that happens, it will still take time to sort out trade ramifications, ramp up production and develop a distribution strategy, industry officials said.

Hens used in egg production account for more than 75% of the total deaths related to the current bird flu outbreak.

Chicken shot

The chicken industry is pushing back on any vaccine approval until trade issues are sorted out.

The U.S. is the world’s second-largest exporter of poultry meat, shipping products like chicken feet, leg quarters, and other dark-meat products to more than 150 countries. A backup in exports could lead to production cuts from major chicken companies, resulting in fewer grain and soybean purchases for livestock feed from farmers.

Suppliers of chicken for sandwiches at fast-food restaurants and boneless breasts sold at grocery stores also contend that vaccinations don’t make sense based on how long birds are raised. Chickens raised for meat—or broilers—are raised and slaughtered in about 45 days. Egg-laying hens stay in one facility for roughly two years.

Hens used in egg production account for more than 75% of the total deaths related to the current outbreak, while chickens raised for meat have made up about 8%.

John Clifford, a former chief veterinary officer at the USDA, said the agency should focus on working with countries to compromise on some of its bird-flu-related trade rules.

For example, the egg industry has advocated for targeting vaccines for flocks in top egg-producing states in the Midwest like Iowa and Ohio while leaving the chicken-raising states in the Southeast alone in hopes other countries will still import nonvaccinated U.S. chicken.

“It’s about developing a strategy that we can share with our trading partners," Clifford said. “Would you still accept our broiler product if it’s not going to be vaccinated? Is there more reception to that? I don’t know."

Write to Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com