US government announces new financial incentives for farms to stem the spread of bird flu in dairy cattle

The US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture announced on Friday a new plan to pay dairy farmers and farm workers to take steps to prevent the spread of H5N1 bird flu.

Over the next four months, the government will pay up to $28,000 per farm to support specific steps to prevent the spread of H5N1 bird flu in dairy cattle. Some $98 million will be funneled to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to fund the program.

The USDA confirmed the first bird flu infection in cows in late March. Since then, more than 40 herds have tested positive in nine states.

Right now, health officials say, the virus doesn’t transmit efficiently from person to person, making the risk to humans low. But scientists have said that having the infection spreading in domesticated animals like cattle is risky since it puts the virus in closer proximity to people, where it could adapt and evolve to become a fully human pathogen. If that happens, researchers say, it could spark another pandemic.

“I think it’s fair to say that our top priority at USDA, given our mission, is to contain this as an animal health event,” Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said on a call with reporters on Friday.

“Ultimately, we want to eliminate the virus in the industry and develop over time a vaccine to prevent another emergency of H5N1 in cattle.”

The USDA has acknowledged that some dairy producers have been wary of letting the government come onto their farms to test livestock. Farm workers with symptoms have also reportedly been reluctant to be tested for H5N1 influenza since most are not compensated for if they need to take time off work for illness.

As part of the plan announced Friday, the USDA will provide financial support — up to $2,000 per affected farm per month — for producers who supply personal protective equipment to their workers or help them wash their uniforms. Financial support is also available to farmers who allow their workers to participate in a study through the USDA and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Workers who participate in the CDC study would also be compensated for their time, the USDA said.

Additional payments, up to $1,500 per farm, will be available to aid the development of biosecurity plans. The USDA will offer dairy farms $100 to purchase a piece of equipment called an in-line sampler so their milk can be tested as it travels between the cows and a holding tank.

Another $2,000 will be available to farms that heat treat their wasted milk before it is disposed.

USDA will also cover up to $10,000 of veterinary costs at farms where cattle have tested positive for H5N1 and will cover the cost of shipping samples to testing labs in the National Animal Health Laboratory Network.

The government says it will also compensate farmers for lost milk production if their cows get sick.

In addition, HHS is going to send an additional $101 million in funding to the CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration to help fund their H5N1 response efforts.

“We’ve identified 93 million to be used by CDC to expand our monitoring of people exposed to infected animals, to scale up our testing and analysis capabilities, to determine whether candidate vaccines are effective and to manufacture, store, and distribute additional influenza diagnostic kits,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

Another $8 million will be given to FDA to support to the agency’s ability to conduct surveillance at different points in the milk production system, Becerra said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

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