By Diyar Guldogan
WASHINGTON (AA) - The US will spend up to $1 billion to combat bird flu and make eggs affordable, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday.
"Today I am announcing a comprehensive strategy to combat avian influenza. The Agriculture Department will invest up to $1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again," Rollins said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Rollins said families are seeing egg prices of $6, $7, $10 or more due to continuing outbreaks of the "highly pathogenic avian influenza," which has devastated American poultry farmers and slashed the egg supply in the last two years.
"There’s no silver bullet to eradicating avian flu," she said, adding the agency has developed a five-pronged strategy, including dedicating up to $500 million to helping US poultry producers implement gold-standard biosecurity measures.
The other strategies include making up to $400 million of increased financial relief available to farmers, exploring the use of vaccines and therapeutics for laying chickens, and other actions to lower the price of eggs.
"Finally, we will consider temporary import options to reduce egg costs in the short term," Rollins said.
Türkiye is set to export 15,000 tons of eggs to the US by June to ease disruptions.
"This five-point strategy won’t erase the problem overnight, but we’re confident that it will restore stability to the egg market over the next three to six months," Rollins said.