HPAI reshapes global poultry trade dynamics for US
The ongoing highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak has fundamentally altered how the U.S. navigates global poultry trade, but a decades-long investment in zoning agreements and surveillance infrastructure has kept export markets more resilient than expected.
According to John Clifford, DVM, veterinary trade policy adviser for the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) and former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief veterinary officer, the trade impact has been meaningful but not catastrophic. The most significant consequences have shown up in cost and supply rather than sweeping market closures, as global protein demand continues to keep trade moving even under pressure.
"The world continues to trade as they need," Clifford said, noting that while HPAI has hurt specific markets, it has stopped well short of causing major systemic disruptions. Where trading partners with the U.S. won't accept fresh or frozen products from affected regions, cooked products typically still remain an option.
Clifford will provide updates on how the U.S. and other countries are preparing to balance methods for stamping out the virus in commercial operations while keeping export markets open at the 2026 Chicken Marketing Summit, scheduled for July 27-29, 2026 at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida.
Registration is now open with early bird savings until May 31.
Zoning agreements are the US's strongest defense
The current outbreak looks meaningfully different from the 2014–15 event, which marked the first U.S. encounter with this H5N1 strain after it crossed the Bering Strait from Asia into North American wild bird flyways. At that time, zoning agreements that temporarily halted trade in established specific, geographically defined areas around infected premises covered only about five countries. As a result, trading partners responded by restricting imports from the entire U.S., inflicting serious economic damage to the entire industry.