- U.S. Senate Agriculture leaders urge USDA action.
- Prioritize vaccine strategy for avian influenza.
- Target highly pathogenic H5N1 strain.
John Zimmerman, a Minnesota Turkey farmer who chaired the National Turkey Federation in 2024, tells Brownfield that the assiduity has made significant progress in biosecurity and precluding the spread of avian flu.
“But at the end of the day we’re still having very highly bio-secure farms come down with the virus, so we need to look at other options. And that other option for us now is the vaccine.”
In a recent letter to USDA, Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar and over two dozen colleagues requested that the agency move forward with a draft proposal of an HPAI vaccine plan for poultry.
According to Zimmerman, using a vaccination would have an impact on trade.
“So we have to get a strategy in place to work with USDA to make sure that if we do start to selectively vaccinate some of these flocks that have been hit multiple times or certain geographic areas, that it doesn’t interrupt our trade agreements with other foreign countries. So that’s what we’re fighting for now and that’s what we’re asking for help from the Senators.”
Any approved vaccine strategy, according to the letter to USDA, must be based on solid science and consider input from industry experts and animal health stakeholders.
What are the main elements of the USDA vaccine strategy draft?
U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee leaders, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar(D-MN) and Mike Rounds( R- SD), transferred a bipartisan letter to USDA Secretary on December 10, 2025, pressing for accelerated development of a largely pathogenic avian influenza( HPAI) vaccine strategy amid rising downtime outbreaks.
Original vaccine cure beforehand in catcalls' lives, followed by boosters, with routine testing to confirm efficiency; vaccinated flocks testing positive would still face handpicking to save import requests. Targets high- threat flocks (e.g., thick marketable layers, clunkers near outbreaks) using profitable impact assessments, with$ 100 million exploration backing for vaccine development.
Requires memoranda of understanding for record- keeping, zone- confined movement, and transnational consultations to alleviate trade walls; rollout plannedpost-stakeholder input, expanding from cookers to dairy cattle.