Bird flu’s growing impact calls for urgent action at international summit

By Jenifer Fouch
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — As highly pathogenic avian influenza continues to infect more than just birds, scientists and industry professionals want to prevent it from infecting more species and continuing to impact animal and human health, the environment and the economy.

CLUCKING UP SOLUTIONS — Guillermo Tellez-Isaias, the chairman of the summit leads opening remarks at the 2024 Internaional Avian Influenza Summit. (U of A System Division of Ag photo)

The four-day International Avian Influenza and One Health Emerging Issues Summit hosted by the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science had a total of 1,270 registered participants from 51 countries, in-person and virtually, to share and learn more about HPAI, or highly pathogenic avian influenza, and other diseases impacting animals and humans.

Guillermo Tellez-Isaias, the chairman of the summit and retired research professor for the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science and the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, says there are other threats to animal and human health in addition to the bird flu.

"The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus has naturally been able to adapt to species that it never infected before. If it fully adapts to humans, COVID-19 will look like a small cold compared to what this virus could cause," Tellez-Isaias said, comparing its threat to the Spanish flu in 1918. "So, that's why we wanted to have this summit, to create awareness for people worldwide."

Tellez-Isaias said participants at the summit will produce a document with guidelines and recommendations for national and international health authorities, based on group discussions and expert presentations, to help guide future efforts in combating highly pathogenic avian influenza and other emerging health threats.

The Center of Excellence for Poultry Science is part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and the University of Arkansas Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. The center performs the three land grant missions of teaching — carried out through Bumpers College — and research and extension through the Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service.

After a successful inaugural event in 2023, Tellez-Isaias said, organizers expanded the scope in the second year to include other emerging issues affecting cattle, swine, bees, humans and more as part of the One Health concept, which emphasizes that animal, human and environmental health are all interconnected.

"The first two days, we focused on highly pathogenic avian influenza, but not only in poultry. We extended it to wild and commercial animals, including dairy," Tellez-Isaias said. "And we discussed avian influenza and other diseases, including exotic diseases like the African swine fever, which is already in our backyard in the Dominican Republic. It's something we are keeping an eye on."

Urgency of collaboration

Tellez-Isaias says it's urgent to focus on these diseases globally, as bird flu has spread to different species in all continents including  Antarctica.

"These diseases know no borders," he said.

Members of industry, governmental and regulatory agencies, and scientists from around the world presented their work at the summit. Tellez-Isaias said their findings could improve animal health overall and potentially contribute to minimizing the impacts of bird flu and other viruses.

From the Division of Agriculture, Sami Dridi, professor of poultry science, talked about poultry production sustainability, specifically heat stress challenges and potential mechanism-based strategies. Dridi's research includes working with chickens bred to conserve water while maintaining growth under heat stress. He found that water efficiency is improving with each new generation and has the potential to expand with application to other poultry operations, such as turkeys and ducks.

Tomi Obe, assistant professor with the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science and the poultry science department, presented research on pre- and post-harvest strategies for salmonella control in poultry production. She discussed different methods to consider at feed mills, farms and the processors. Obe is also part of the Arkansas Center for Food Safety within the food science department.

PROTECTING POULTRY — Jada Thompson, assistant professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, gave an overview of how highly pathogenic avian influenza affected egg prices and resulted in other economic impacts. (U of A System Division of Ag photo)

Jada Thompson, assistant professor in the agricultural economics and agribusiness department, talked about the economic impacts of highly pathogenic avian influenza, including how the disease impacts producers and consumers.  

Bill Potter, associate professor and extension poultry specialist with the Division of Agriculture, discussed One Health strategies to optimize poultry intestinal integrity and pre-harvest food safety. He discussed proposed regulations around salmonella and shared research showing the efficacy of implementing vaccines in poultry.

Adnan Alrubaye, assistant professor of poultry science, talked about management practices to mitigate lameness in broiler chickens caused by specific bacteria.

Those attending the summit included both international and local researchers, veterinarians and private sector professionals.  

Amanda Bray, a poultry science alumna and co-owner of Northwest Arkansas Veterinary Services in Springdale, said staying informed on industry trends domestically and internationally helps her learn what services to offer.

"Our primary focus is the poultry and dairy industries,” Bray said. “And [bird flu] is a very big problem. So, the more knowledge I have, the better I know how to support others in the industry and what tests we need to develop and offer."

United front for global health

Liliana Monroy is founder and CEO of Natural Animal Health, a company providing gut health products to producers. Monroy said she has garnered a long-trusting relationship with researchers with the Division of Agriculture, and that “collaboration is vital” to fight highly pathogenic avian influenza.

"If you want to be successful, you have to go to the people who know more,” Monroy said. “And you need to work very closely with professors and researchers. We cannot work in silos. Since we come from different backgrounds, we need to unite efforts with doctors, environmental entities, leaders in the private sector, and so on, to stop what's going on."

Monroy, who also presented during the conference, says biosecurity protocols, although crucial to preventing the spread of bird flu, have also created many roadblocks for businesses and producers.

The International Avian Influenza Summit was hosted by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, and the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science. The American College of Poultry Veterinarians and the American Veterinary Medical Association approved the conference for continuing education credits with 23 and 26 CE credits respectively and the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization with 12 CE credits. The event was held at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences in Fayetteville, Sept. 30 through Oct. 3.

To learn more about the Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website. Follow us on X at @ArkAgResearch, subscribe to the Food, Farms and Forests podcast and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.

Consumers can expect egg prices to decline, but not to 2021 levels

By Mary Hightower
U of A System Division of Agriculture

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Egg prices won’t stay high forever, but with no clear end in sight for the current round of highly pathogenic avian flu, prices won’t descend to bargain basement levels, said Jada Thompson, a poultry economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

In 2022, average U.S. retail prices for eggs rose from just under $2 per dozen to more than $4 a dozen. That compares with 2021, in which egg prices in January were below $1.50. The average retail price rose lazily through the year, but never reached $2 a dozen.

WHERE ARE ALL THE EGGS? — Empty space in the grocery store were the dozen egg containers were. Only a few stragglers, plus flats of 18-egg cartons remained. Taken Jan. 23, 2023. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

“Highly pathogenic avian flu, or HPAI, has devastated the poultry industry in the U.S.,” Thompson said. “We are about 5 to 6 percent down in our layer flock, leading us to be down in our egg supply 5-6 percent year over year.”

However, HPAI is just one of the factors driving up the price of eggs since last fall.

“Add other factors like inflation,  and there’s fuel, which is impacting our transportation. Plus, you have driver shortages and that increases the cost of production and getting eggs to the market.

You have things like high demand in November and December — everybody wants those deviled eggs,” she said. “Then you add the war in Ukraine, which you don’t think about affecting eggs directly, but that affects global feed supply and trade around the world.”

Corn and soybeans play a big role in chicken feed, she said. Raising those crops has become more expensive thanks to fertilizer and diesel prices pushed higher by the Ukraine conflict.

“The cost of feed for eggs has gone up something like 29.5 percent,” she said. “That’s a substantial portion of the cost that goes into producing an egg.”

Outlook

Consumer price index, or “CPI, numbers are coming out and we are seeing some reduction in inflation, so that’s the easing of food prices in general,” Thompson said. “We’re seeing some of the wholesale, even retail prices coming down.”

Thompson said she and other economists will be looking at how bird flu affects the markets and the supply chain. However, there is no instant fix, since replenishing the supply of hens takes time.

“We don’t have a million birds laying around,” she said. “It’s six months before we have a bird ready to lay an egg. It takes 21 days to hatch an egg; five months or 20 weeks to get that chick to maturity.”

Thompson said that in November and December of ’22, the supply of birds was down.

AVIAN FLU — The current outbreak has been more widespread than 2015. (U of A System Division of Agriculture images courtesy Jada Thompson)

However, “pullets — birds that are between chicks and adults — are up 5 percent,” she said. “The replenishment chain has been trying to reduce the short supply. We’re still hatching.”

While all those activities are easing the supply and prices, Thompson said “egg prices won’t be declining to 2021 levels.”

Worse than 2015

The current avian influenza outbreak is worse than 2015, which was considered the largest animal health event ever. Laying hens are turkeys are more susceptible than other poultry, Thompson said.

Some 50.4 million birds in 15 states were affected by the 2015 outbreak, but the current outbreak has affected 57.9 million birds in 47 states. In 2022, layers comprised 75 percent of the poultry affected by HPAI. Turkeys were next at 16 percent, followed by broilers at 4 percent and breeders at 3 percent. In 2022, Arkansas had HPAI in three flocks affecting 56,470 birds.  

What’s difference?

The virus has adapted to not kill its host. “The wild birds are not as susceptible to it. Ducks and geese are not getting it as bad as turkeys and chickens” enabling a wider spread and giving the outbreak a longer life, Thompson said.

In 2015, “hot summers stopped the spread and we saw it die out,” Thompson said.

The only reason the current outbreak isn’t even worse is because industry and backyard flock owners are practicing biosecurity protocols learned from the 2015 outbreak.

“We have doubled down on biosecurity with truck washes, more personal protective equipment, which are used even during non-HPAI times,” she said.

Plus, Thompson said, there is increased surveillance and better reporting “and more communicating and social media reporting of that, and they are helping us know where the wild birds are migrating.”

"I have to give props to producers who have been increasing biosecurity, as well as local, state and federal agencies in communicating a lot more about biosecurity,” Thompson said. “As bad as this current outbreak is, this is us trying to slow this down.”

Fighting fatigue

“Outside this hemisphere, they’ve been fighting it for several years,” said Dustan Clark, extension poultry veterinarian for the Division of Agriculture. “We’re at a lull right now since migration is ceased, but we will fight it through this spring and probably again this fall.”

Clark says he’s seen the effects locally.

“I go to the grocery store and see people look at the eggs and move on,” he said. “Or sometimes, they just don’t find eggs.”

Over the last year, Clark has spoken dozens of times to producers and backyard flock owners and others through meetings and webinars, hammering home the need for biosecurity protocols. He said he would schedule more webinars this spring, when wildfowl start their northward migration.

“Since this virus has been detected in wild waterfowl in every state but Hawaii,” Clark said. “It’s an ongoing concern.”

“We are trying to keep everyone vigilant and hope they don’t get fatigued,” he said. “Once the virus slips in on you, it’s going to be problematic.”

In Arkansas, chicken eggs ranked No. 4 in terms of cash farm receipts at $568 million. Broilers topped the list with at nearly $2.7 billion, according to the latest Arkansas Agriculture Profile.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has a site detailing confirmations of HPAI in flocks and a dashboard for tracking wild bird infections.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.

U.S. Department of Agriculture confirms avian flu among wild birds in the region

KUAR | By Mary Hightower/UA Division of Agriculture

The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been found in all four of the flyways of North America, according to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Agriculture Department.

The infection reported by APHIS, a mixed-species commercial flock in South Dakota, was the first reported in the Central Flyway. The disease already has been found in commercial and backyard flocks in Maryland, Maine, Missouri, New York, Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, Delaware, Michigan, Connecticut and Iowa.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2022-03-09/u-s-department-of-agriculture-confirms-avian-flu-among-wild-birds-in-the-region

Mary Hightower/UA Division Of Agriculture

A backyard chicken seen wandering the streets.