Trump administration takes aim at bird flu. For now, the cattle will have to wait New strategy focuses on economic threat posed by sick poultry over wider pandemic threat

https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/26/trump-administration-bird-flu-policy-issue-of-public-health-or-egg-prices/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--HxpW0ZlCx__jqYZBK_9Ex12w3MCbPu4kCnzbjqyLxIdfJSnfrCFwiM5CqEQ32rzEtbvJh0aEm3tJKmRW-1X91_Md-Xg&_hsmi=349157006&utm_content=349157006&utm_source=hs_email What USDA’s bird flu plan says about Trump’s approach And in other infectious disease news: The USDA announced yesterday an additional $1 billion to help the country’s poultry industry fight the accelerating outbreak of H5N1 bird flu that has devastated farmers and driven the price of eggs to record highs. STAT readers already know that bird flu has been a problem in the country’s dairy cows for close to a year, since the first outbreak was confirmed in Texas last March. But the USDA plan does not include any additional efforts to curb the spread among cattle, signaling that the Trump administration is approaching the disease as primarily an issue of economic concern, STAT’s Megan Molteni and Helen Branswell write. But it’s more than economics: The ongoing spread among cows has raised fears that bird flu could become an endemic pathogen in a species that has considerable contact with people — which then would increase the odds that it could evolve in ways that make it easier to spread among people. Read more from Megan and Helen.