RFK Jr. Suggests Letting Bird Flu Spread

WEDNESDAY, March 19, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- A controversial proposal from U.S Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to let bird flu naturally spread through poultry farms is raising alarms among scientists -- who say the move could be inhumane and dangerous.

Kennedy recently suggested that instead of culling infected birds, farmers should instead allow the virus to run through flocks to identify naturally immune birds.

"We can identify the birds and preserve the birds that are immune to it,” Kennedy recently told Fox News.

Though Kennedy has no direct control over farms, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has also expressed interest in testing the idea.

“There are some farmers that are out there that are willing to really try this on a pilot as we build the safe perimeter around them to see if there is a way forward with immunity,” Rollins told CBS News.

But veterinary experts say this could backfire.

“That’s a really terrible idea, for any one of a number of reasons,” Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas, said in a report published by The New York Times.

Since January 2022, bird flu has affected more than 166 million birds across every U.S. state.

Experts warn that allowing the virus to spread could increase the risk of it mutating.

But if the bird flu were to run through a flock of five million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Hansen said.

It could also put farm workers and other animals at risk.

Emily Hilliard, deputy press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, defended Kennedy’s stance.

“Culling puts people at the highest risk of exposure, which is why Secretary Kennedy and N.I.H. want to limit culling activities,” Hilliard explained to The Times, referring to the National Institutes of Health. “Culling is not the solution. Strong biosecurity is.”

However, experts argue that bird flu spreads too quickly for this to work.

Infected poultry can often develop severe respiratory symptoms, tremors and diarrhea, and suddenly die.

“These infections would cause very painful deaths in nearly 100 percent of the chickens and turkeys,” Dr. David Swayne, a poultry veterinarian who worked at the U.S.D.A. for nearly 30 years, told The Times.

Kennedy has suggested that some poultry may have natural immunity, but experts disagree.

“The way we raise birds now, there’s not a lot of genetic variability,” Hansen said. “They’re all the same bird, basically.”

What's more, allowing the virus to spread could also cause economic turmoil, experts say.

“There’s a huge economic loss immediately," Dr. Keith Poulsen, the director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, told The Times.

Despite Kennedy’s claim that wild birds appear immune, scientists point out that bird flu has killed many species, including raptors, waterfowl and sandhill cranes.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the current bird situation.

SOURCE: The New York Times, March 18, 2025