As bird flu payments pass $1B and egg prices keep climbing, feds make it harder to get compensated

Federal officials are cracking down on poultry operations looking for taxpayer relief from bird flu losses and will now require a biosecurity audit before insuring birds against future avian influenza outbreaks.

The new requirement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is an effort to stamp out the nearly three-year-old outbreak that has claimed 128 million birds nationwide. Infections continue in Minnesota and elsewhere, driving up the cost of eggs and meat.

As the outbreak spreads, the public costs continue to rise. The biosecurity requirement is an attempt to rein in the cost of compensating growers, who are required to euthanize their entire flock when bird flu is detected. Producers are reimbursed for the market value of the birds they had to euthanize.

Of the 1,200 producers who have received federal indemnity payments, 67 have had at least two infections, the USDA said Monday.

Those multiple-outbreak operations have been quite large, accounting for $365 million of $1.1 billion of indemnity payments to date, according to the USDA.

That’s also true in Minnesota, where much of the $170 million in federal reimbursements has gone to the largest poultry companies in the state, including Hormel-owned Jennie-O Turkey Store and egg producer Forsman Farms, which has received eight indemnity payments for $73 million.

There have been 18 facilities with three or more outbreaks nationally.

“Biosecurity is proven to be our best weapon in fighting this virus, and this update will ensure that poultry producers who received indemnity for HPAI are taking measures to stop future introductions of the disease and avoiding actions that contribute to its spread,” USDA Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Rosemary Sifford said in a news release.