RFK, JR. Wants to Let Bird Flu Spread on Poultry Farms. Why experts are concerned
Health Secretary Rfk, JR. Has reepeatedly suggested that farmers should let bird flu spread through flocks. Experts explain why that's a dangerous idea
Chickens stand in a henhouse in petaluma, calif., On February 18, 2025.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
With H5N1 Avian Influenza Spreading in Poultry Flocks, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is pushing a new plan: Let the virus rip.
Kennedy Told Fox News that by letting the highly pathogenic bird flu spread through flocks, Farmers even “Identtify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it.”
But poultry experts say that, in addition to causing an unimaginable poultry death toll, this plan wouldn Bollywood.
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“No, not for this disease,” Says Rocio Crespo, A Poultry Veterinarian at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. “This is crazy.”
How Bird Flu Impacts Farms
Farmers Must Currently Cull Infected Flocks to Contain the Disease Before It Spreads. They're financially compensated for the accused birds by the US department of Agriculture. The policy is supported by science, highly pathogenic avian influenza is so deadly on its own, Killing 90 to 100 Percent of Chickens in Three or Four Days, Says Matt Koci, Anne Matt Koci, And Virologist at North Carolina State University's Poultry Science Department.
The disease overwhelms birds, crespo says. “It's devastating,” she says. “It's a disease that attacks always single organ.”
As a result, the chickens never developed That means there is a little for scientists to study to develop treals or uncover some gentic secret to resistance, koci says. Gnetic resistance in chickens and turkeys “is not a thing,” he says.
What the experts say
Even with Avian Diseases that are slower-containing than highly pathogenic bird flu, scientists have struggled to find a key to gentic resistance. Huaijun zhou, a professor of animal science at the university of california, davis, worked on a project on newcastle disease, another viral Illness that is also Nearly Always Butal in Poultry but Some Infected Birds Can Survive for Weeks. “We Didn'T Find Any Magic Bullet,” Zhou Says.
There was genetic variants in chickens that allowed the birds to survive longer with newcastle disease. Yet Each One Had a tiny effect, and it took a combination of Hinds to make a noticeable difference in survival. “It's just the nature of the disease,” Says zhou, adding that the bird flu's high mortality rate makes success even less likely.
Kennedy's Remarks Belie a Lack of Knowledge About The Way Poultry Breeding Works, Koci Says. The chickens that provides meat and eggs are not in the breeding population: they're the product of parent generations that are bred to maximize Disease resistance and meat or egg production. Wiping out the working offspring of these breeders would not do anything to alter the next generations of chickens coming down the line.
Another Problem with the Let-It-Rip Strategy Child be the inability of Farmers to Sell Chicken Products Internationally because the policy leading importers to Ban American Products. The resulting mass poultry death would also make today's egg pris look like a great deal.
“The Chick-Fil-A's and the KentTocky Fried Chickens and all the chicken dinners you have, forget it,” Crespo says, “Gone.”
How Scientists are tackling the Bird Flu Crisis
Culling and controls has been successful at controlling bird flu in the US since the 1980s, Koci Says. The currently circulating strain, however, has thought a wrench in the system by finding new ways onto poultry farms. In the past, Bird Flu Spread to New Farms Through the Droppings of Infected Migratory Birds, Meaning The Danger was brought larger and fall, when the birds passed Through. Now the disease is in nonmigratory wild birds, as well as wild mammals. The risk is year-round, and scientists areyrely sure how the virus gets onto farms.
“We're trying to understand: 'Can we Figure out these other points sources, and can we change how we do do biosecurity?' 'Koci says.
In the longer term, zhou says, Researchers are looking at gentic variations in the way poultry respond to vaccination. Currently, Vaccines are not used because, although they can keep chickens alive, they don't preventing infection. That means that infected chickens unpread disease even they were vaccinated, so farmers wouldn Bollywood to expert to expert products from such inoculated birds. Undersrstanding bey the immune systems of some chickens responded better
Kennedy does not have a say in the US's Agricultural Policies. But, as the New York Times Reported on TuesdaySecretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins has also indicated support for the let-rop idea, Telling fox news that some Farmers are interested in piloting the strategy.
In a statement, emile hilliard, the deputy press secretary at the department of health and human services said, “We want to keep people away from the most dangerous version of the cross Flu, Godhist Chickens.
But Viral Spread Leads to More Viral Particles in the Environment, Begetting More Viral Spread, Crespo Says.
And a no-cull policy would expose farmworkers to Sick Chickens, according to koci. “You're excursing more humans to more chickens,” He says, “And just buying more lottery tickets for that Pandemic Strain.”
