Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) granted a conditional licence for an avian flu vaccine to be used in chickens, as the ongoing outbreak continues to devastate poultry flocks and drive up egg prices.
Zoetis, the company behind the vaccine, announced the conditional approval on Friday. In a statement, Zoetis revealed that its scientists began updating the existing avian flu vaccine in 2022.
"We’ve been collaborating with the administration and Congress, and we are very excited to receive the licence for the vaccine in poultry, which we believe will serve as an important tool to support the government, should they decide it is necessary," Zoetis' chief executive Kristin Peck told the press.
The USDA granted the conditional licence following Zoetis' demonstration of the vaccine's safety, purity and reasonable efficacy. Zoetis explained that conditional licences are typically issued to address emergency situations or special circumstances and are granted for a set period.
Zoetis has previously developed vaccines for avian flu including one used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to protect California condors in 2023.
The company also noted that the decision to vaccinate commercial poultry flocks rests entirely with national regulatory authorities in consultation with the local poultry industry.
While other countries have already introduced vaccination for chickens against avian flu, the US has historically focused on eradicating the virus by culling infected flocks. Vaccination has often been seen as complicated due to concerns such as difficulty detecting the virus in vaccinated birds and potential trade issues.
However, the strategy may be changing as bird flu spreads to other animals, including cattle, and becomes harder to control. Over the past 30 days, 146 flocks have been confirmed to have avian flu, affecting more than 20.5 million birds, according to the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Since the outbreak began in 2022, over 150 million birds have been impacted.
In the US, 70 human cases of bird flu have been confirmed since March 2024, including a fatality in an elderly person in Louisiana last year. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that the risk to the general public remains low, though those working on farms with infected animals or who manage backyard poultry flocks face a higher risk of infection.
Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council, is working alongside Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins to present a plan to President Donald Trump to combat the bird flu. This plan could include measures that avoid the need to cull chickens.
"We need to improve biosecurity and use medication to prevent the need for killing chickens," Hassett said. "We are working on establishing a smart perimeter with the best scientists in the government to achieve this."
Meanwhile, US consumers can expect to continue facing high egg prices in the coming year due to the ongoing avian flu outbreak and inflation. New estimates predict that egg prices will rise by approximately 20 per cent in 2025, compared to a general food price increase of 2.2 per cent, according to the USDA's price outlook.
Other grocery items, such as beef, coffee and orange juice, are also seeing price hikes, but eggs are uniquely affected by the aggressive avian flu strain, which has severely disrupted supply.