A bipartisan group of US senators urged the Trump administration to commit to a science-based plan for developing a bird flu vaccine for livestock, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters. The appeal lands as winter infections climb again and federal agencies face louder calls to move faster.
Since 2022, avian influenza has forced the culling of more than 180 mn chickens, turkeys, and other poultry across the US. USDA said in June it was working on a possible vaccination strategy for poultry.
According to InsuranceNews US, 23 senators asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to take what they described as renewed action. The letter, sent Wednesday and first reported by Reuters, frames vaccine planning as urgent as outbreaks intensify and supply chains strain.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, led the effort alongside Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune also signed, joined by several Democrats and Republicans on the committee.
The senators said any final vaccine approach must reflect input from animal health experts and industry stakeholders and rest on solid science. The wording feels deliberate.
According to our analysts, lawmakers are signalling concern that politics and policy drift are slowing technical decisions that agencies already know how to make.
In March, USDA committed $100 mn to vaccine and therapeutic research focused on egg-laying chickens as part of a wider bird flu response.
Egg prices had just hit record levels. In June, the agency said it received 417 proposals for the funding. Since then, nothing public.
The administration has taken a very different path on human vaccines. In May, it canceled a $700 mn contract with Moderna to develop a human bird flu vaccine.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time vaccine critic, has also cut other research funding and rolled back federal vaccine guidance that had stood for decades.
Vaccination remains controversial inside the poultry sector. Some producers worry broad use could trigger export restrictions from trading partners, a risk the senators acknowledged.
They urged USDA to work closely with producers and foreign governments to assess trade fallout before finalising any plan.
USDA told Reuters in late November that it had not yet shared a poultry vaccination strategy with trading partners. Winter outbreaks continue. The gap between warning and action does too.
