USDA Has Spent $1.25 Billion on Mass Culling for H5N1 Bird Flu—With Disastrous Consequences

The failed biosecurity strategy has driven egg prices to a 45-year high while wasting billions in taxpayer funds on indemnity payments.

by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

According to a recent USDA document titled, Payment of Indemnity and Compensation for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza:

As of November 2024, the costs associated with the ongoing [H5N1] outbreak have exceeded $1.4 billion, including $1.25 billion in indemnity and compensation payments. Of this, APHIS has spent approximately $227 million on indemnity payments to premises that have been infected multiple times with HPAI.

The strikingly large sum of indemnity payments not only incentivizes farmers to comply with state-run mass killing of their animals but also represents a serious misuse of taxpayer money, as mass culling triggers a cascade of severe downstream consequences. Here are four key reasons why the mass culling of poultry for H5N1 bird flu must end immediately:

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Mass Culling Has Failed

Despite routinely killing the entire flock over an H5N1 bird flu PCR detection (41.4 million domesticated birds were culled in December 2024 and January 2025 alone), H5N1 continues to widely propagate among poultry:

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Mass Culling Causes Egg Prices to Skyrocket

The monthly average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs hit a 45-year high in January 2025, making food less affordable for millions.

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Mass Culling Results in Chicken-to-Human Transmission

According to a recent study by Garg et al, 100% of poultry-linked human H5N1 cases have been traced to reckless mass depopulation efforts:

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Mass Culling is Not Necessary

Three studies demonstrate that a substantial number of chickens survive H5N1 infection and will thus obtain natural immunity against the virus, helping to limit future spread:

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control et al:

Pantin-Jackwood et al:

Kayali et al:

This was outlined in the McCullough Foundation production, Bird Flu: Separating Fact from Fiction and True Danger from Fear-mongering.

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Current biosecurity strategies aimed at ‘eradicating’ bird flu are clearly failing, as mallard ducks continually reinfect farms with the mild H5N1 virus. The USDA must disclose the real-time RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values used for H5N1 detection, end the unnecessary culling of healthy birds, and allow natural immunity to develop.

Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

Epidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough Foundation

www.mcculloughfnd.org

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