HPAI in US here to stay; routine vaccination not on horizon

“HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) is endemic in the United States; it’s not endemic in poultry,” said John Clifford, DVM veterinary trade and policy advisor, USA Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC). He told the audience at the 2026 Chicken Marketing Summit in Palm Harbor, Florida, on July 29, 2026, “It is not endemic in poultry. Why? Because the United States has one of the best programs in the world when it comes to the elimination and control of HPAI. And it was established initially through a low-path AI (low pathogenic avian influenza) program in the National Poultry Improvement Plan. And that program identifies and quickly alerts us to low-path AI in farms.”

Clifford went on to explain how the real economic impact of trade disruptions continues to drive the discussion of HPAI vaccination of U.S. poultry. 

He said that if the U.S. were to initiate HPAI vaccination of poultry on a wide scale, even if only in one sector such as turkeys or table egg layers, the estimated losses to the U.S. poultry industry would total around $13 billion. Roughly $3 billion would result from lost trade of poultry products. Another $10 billion would come from the domestic market absorbing the volume of products that aren’t exported, resulting in lower prices for producers.

Vaccination dilemma

“Now as a veterinarian, I believe in vaccines, I believe in use of tools that we have in our toolbox to help for many reasons,” Clifford said. “I for one do not want to see our poultry industry, and while the egg industry and the turkey industry have been decimated in places because of this, and that's very sad, I also don't want to see our total industry as a whole destroyed by doing something (vaccination) that may hurt or damage overall.”

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