Bird flu has done a fine job of spreading in the US
It hasn’t been government policy to let the virus spread among America’s chickens instead of culling sick ones, but it may just become the new direction under
Kennedy has spoken publicly about a strategy to “let it spread” among America’s poultry and breed the strongest ones that survive, a policy he said is supported by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
On March 11, Kennedy told Fox News host Sean Hannity that “Most of our scientists are against the culling operation.”
“You should let the disease go through them and identify the birds that survive, which are the birds that probably have a genetic inclination for immunity, and those are the birds that we should breed, like the wild population,” Kennedy said.
By “wild population” Kennedy means mallards, or ducks, which he said fly into farms to eat grain and then spread the virus. Reports since the early 2000s have shown they are less affected by avian , but are carriers of the disease.
Other wild bird species have no natural and, like chickens, can become seriously ill and die.
The facts: Bird flu in the US in 2025
- The most common strain of avian influenza is
- The ongoing US outbreak of H5N1 was first detected in late 2023; indications of a highly pathogenic avian influenza were, however, detected in 2022.
- H5N1 has
- It has been detected in raw, unpasteurized milk, affecting household pets.
- Reports of bird-to-human infections are low (70 cases); at least
- In mid-March 2025, US authorities recorded the first outbreak of another deadly form of the virus, H7N9 — the first such outbreak since 2017.
- The most recent CDC data says more than 168 million wild and domestic birds have been affected.
Public priorities: Human health and industry
In a New York Times article on March 18, Gail Hansen, a former Kansas state veterinarian, said letting H5N1 spread through a flock of five million birds was “five million chances for the virus to replicate or mutate” and, therefore, pose a greater risk for human life.
T. Jacob John, a medical virologist known for his work on in India told DW a policy to let the virus spread was both unethical in terms of public health and a threat to the farming industry.
“The goal of medicine is to prevent mortality and morbidity. If you have a tool to reduce either, [not doing so] is unethical,” John said.
“If mortality or case-fatality is 95%, the entire industry will collapse.
“Culling within a prescribed circumference is cruel to some, but lifesaving for the remaining birds. This approach has always stopped spread beyond the time of culling — and saved the industry.”
Is culling sick animals dangerous for humans?
There is a concern that people culling sick birds, cattle and other animals
Most human cases in the US have been among agricultural workers handling the birds.
Germany’s Friedrich Loeffler Institute, the federal body for animal health, told DW the risks can be mitigated by measures, including:
- Early detection of disease outbreaks
- Use of personal protective equipment
- Use of anti-viral medicines
Let it spread: A ‘libertarian-authoritarian doctrine’?
The idea of letting bird flu spread without any measures to contain it, such as culling, has a distinct ring of the COVID-19 pandemic debates around herd immunity and lockdowns.
“Yes, there are similarities and parallels between the way the was managed by […] what I call libertarian-authoritarian governments — and today’s situation with bird flu,” said Theo Bourgeron, a health and finance sociologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Bourgeron said he observed reports and think tanks prepared to support a “let-the-virus-spread doctrine” during the early phases of the pandemic in the UK.
“I don’t think it makes sense from a scientific point of view, […] even for the US […] especially if it generates its own pandemics through such policies,” Bourgeron said.
So, what exactly is behind the new US administration’s thinking?
“[It] might be a result of overreach by authorities and lockdown proponents during the pandemic,” Johan Norberg, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in the US, told DW.
“They lost a lot of credibility during this period, encroaching on our liberties dramatically, apparently without a better result in terms of health.”
But for Bourgeron, the thinking runs deeper than countering past “overreach” by government.
“The Trump administration and government was elected to some extent, and promoted by, social forces, such as tech and finance billionaires, whose founding idea is that the state and taxpayer, the Treasury, should not pay for the prevention of environmental catastrophes,” Bourgeron said.
Select sources
We will make sure anyone who wants a vaccine can get one, says HHS secretary; Fox News, March 11, 2025 https://www.foxnews.com/video/6369907937112
H5 Bird Flu: Current Situation; US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 20, 2025 https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
Kennedy’s alarming prescription for bird flu on poultry farms; New York Times, March 18, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/health/kennedy-bird-flu.html
Innate Immune Responses to Avian Influenza Viruses in Ducks and Chickens https://www.mdpi.com/2306-7381/6/1/5
Edited by: Matthew Ward Agius
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