By Leah Douglas and Tom Polansek
(Reuters) -The U.S. will rebuild a stockpile of bird flu vaccines for poultry that match the strain of the virus circulating in commercial flocks and wild birds, the Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday, in a sign of the widespread and devastating nature of the nation's persistent outbreak.
The outbreak, which began in poultry in early 2022, has killed more than 130 million commercial, backyard and wild birds in all 50 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths of millions of egg-laying hens pushed wholesale egg prices to record highs last month.
Bird flu is also circulating among dairy cattle herds and has infected nearly 70 people, most of them farm workers exposed to sick poultry or cattle. The U.S. reported its first human death related to bird flu on Monday.
The U.S. built a poultry vaccine stockpile after the prior major bird flu outbreak in 2014 and 2015, though the vaccines were never used, the agency said in a press release.
"USDA believes it is prudent to again pursue a stockpile that matches current outbreak strains," the release said.
Egg and turkey farm groups have called for deploying a vaccine, citing the economic toll for farmers of killing their flocks.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said such deployment would not be possible in the short term, in part due to trade risks. Many countries ban imports of vaccinated poultry over concerns the vaccine could mask the presence of the virus.
The vaccines purchased by USDA following the prior bird flu outbreak were developed by Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK), Ceva (NASDAQ:CEVA) and one by U.S. government researchers, said David Suarez, who was acting laboratory director of the USDA’s Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, in a 2023 interview.
"All the vaccines they purchased expired, and they threw it away," Suarez said in 2023.
Suarez at the time said there was limited appetite for rebuilding a vaccine stockpile until it was likely birds would be vaccinated.
"There's not an appetite of using the limited resources on something that only has a shelf life of two to three years," he said.
Animal health company Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) reached out to USDA during the 2022 outbreak and was told the government did not plan to make new purchases for its vaccine stockpile, the company said in 2023.
The USDA also said it has enrolled 28 states in its national bulk milk testing program to detect bird flu in dairy herds, and that testing so far had not detected new infected herds in states that previously were virus-free.
In the past 30 days, USDA has reported infected herds in California and Texas, according to agency data.