RFK Jr.'s recipe for bird flu on farms: let it spread out

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the highest health officer of the nation, has an unorthodox idea to tackle bird flu that deals with poultry farms. Let the virus rip.

Instead of shrugging birds when the infection is discovered, farmers should “perhaps consider the possibility of letting them walk through the herd so that we can identify the birds and preserve the birds that are immune to it,” said Kennedy recently in Fox News.

He repeated the idea in other interviews on the channel.

Mr. Kennedy is not responsible for farms. But Brooke Rollins, the agricultural secretary, also expressed support for the term.

“There are some farmers who are out there who are ready to really try this on a pilot while we build the safe area around them to see if there is a way with immunity,” Ms. Rollin's last month told Fox News.

However, veterinarian scientists said that it would be inhuman and dangerous to sweep the virus through poultry herds and have enormous economic consequences.

“This is a really terrible idea for several reasons,” said Dr. Gail Hansen, a former vet for Kansas.

Since January 2022, more than 1,600 outbreaks have been reported in farms and back yard in each state. More than 166 million birds were affected.

Each infection is another chance for the virus called H5N1 to develop into a more virulent form. Genetics have followed his mutations closely; So far, the virus has not developed the ability to spread among people.

But if H5N1 can run through a herd of five million birds, “are literally five million chances that this virus can replicated or mutate,” said Dr. Hansen.

A large number of infected birds probably transmit massive amounts of the virus and issues farm workers and other animals.

“Now they are focusing on bad things,” said Dr. Hansen. “It is a recipe for a disaster.”

Emily Hilliard, the deputy press spokeswoman at the Department of Health and Human Services, said Mr. Kennedy's comments aimed to protect people “from the most dangerous version of the current bird flu that can be found in chickens”.

“Culling exhibits people with the highest risk of exposure, which is why secretary Kennedy and Nih want to restrict the club activities,” she said, referring to the national health institutes. “Keulen is not the solution. There is a strong biose security.”

In her plan to combat bird flu, Ms. Rollins recommended that bio security to strengthen bio security – to prevent the virus from entering its premises or the spread with strict cleaning and use of protective equipment.

But that's a longer -term solution. The USDA begins these efforts in just ten states.

The virus initially took root with wild birds, which transmitted it to home poultry and various types of mammals. Now a single infected duck that flies over the head can fall onto a farm on which a chicken or a turkey may take it.

Breeding poultry have weak immune systems and are under enormous environmental stress, which are often packed together in wire cages or poorly ventilated barns. Within a day, H5N1 can get sick up to a third of a herd.

Infected birds can develop serious breath symptoms, diarrhea, tremors and twisting of your neck and produce uncasserable or fragile eggs. Many die for air. (Some birds suddenly die without symptoms.)

The speed with which infected birds collapse was one reason why officials believe that eggs are safe for consumption. Most sick birds die before they can lay an egg or are visibly ill in the way that it is easy to filter them out.

Poultry farmers call the authorities as soon as they recognize the signs of illness or death. If the tests appear positively for bird flu, they will be reimbursed to kill the rest of the herd before the virus spreads further.

If the farmers would find the virus over the farm instead, “these infections would lead to very painful deaths in almost 100 percent of chickens and turkey,” said Dr. David Swayne, an animal of poultry who worked for the USDA for almost 30 years.

The result would be “inhumane, which leads to an unacceptable animal welfare crisis,” he added. (Methods for the Cull birds can also be cruel, but are generally faster at least.)

Farmers who fail infected herds must also clean the premises and make audits before they are resumed. They often strive to solve the crisis quickly. Simply resetting it would have serious financial consequences.

The strategy “means longer quarantine, more downtime, more income and increased expenses,” said a USDA scientist who was not authorized to speak to the media.

Mr. Kennedy has suggested that a sub -group of poultry by nature is immune to bird flu. But chickens and turkey are missing the genes that are necessary to resist the virus, experts said.

“As we raise birds now, there is not much genetic variability,” said Dr. Hansen. “Basically, they are all the same bird.”

The regulations for public health would prohibit the few birds that could survive an infection of sold. In any case, these birds could only be protected against the current version of H5N1, not developed against others who develop as a virus.

“Biology and immunology don't work that way,” said Dr. Keith Poulsen, director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Wisconsin.

If the virus is not controlled, it would probably also lead to trade embargo against poultry from the United States, he added: “There is an enormous economic loss immediately.”

In an interview with Fox News, Mr. Kennedy also suggested that the virus “Wild Birds do not seem to hurt – they have a kind of immunity.”

While ducks and Shorbögel may not have any symptoms, H5N1 killed Raptors, water birds, sand hill cranes and snowfesses under many other types.