H5N1 Losses Continue to Mount

Bird flu has most recently been bringing with it discussions of dairy here in the Sunshine State, but it is in fact closer to that species of origin when you look at where the impact of H5N1 has been felt the most. Over the last two and a half years, American Farm Bureau Federation Economist Bernt Nelson says more than 100 million birds have been affected…

“We've had 73 million egg layers affected by this overall, and this has resulted in some volatility in egg prices. If we look at turkeys, we've had over 14 million turkeys affected by the virus. So, production for turkeys is down about six percent from last year.”

That puts the most recent dairy discoveries into perspective, but I by no means am trying to minimize it.

“Since that time, we've seen nearly 500 detections of avian influenza in dairy herds in 16 states. California is home to 263 of these cases, and this is one of just two states that have had detections in the last 30 days.”

Discussing the USDA response in dairy, Nelson says that APHIS has been using the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish program, that’s ELAP, as a medium to deliver indemnities to dairy farmers. So far, this program has made over 100 payments totaling $18 million to help offset these losses