It’s been a month now since a Rose Acre Farms egg production facility in Jackson County was hit with Bird Flu—leading to the depopulation of more than 2.6 million birds at their Cort Acre Egg Farm near Seymour.
Tony Wesner, who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Rose Acre Farms, was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday testifying before the Senate Ag Committee about Bird Flu. He urged Senators and the ag community to be open minded to solutions for stopping the spread of the virus.
“We have to control this disease, and we have to do it with offense, not defense, which in my opinion, is what we’ve done to this point,” said Wesner.
He told lawmakers he’s fully in support of implementing the Bird Flu vaccine within the U.S. poultry industry in order to fight off the virus.
“I’m not sure a vaccine is 100 percent the answer, but I think that if we go down that road and we start there, there will be people working hard and spending a lot of money to try to come up with answers,” said Wesner.
He pointed to a number of other countries around the world are that already using vaccines for Bird Flu.
“Nobody wants to see trade stopped because we start using vaccines,” he said. “I looked up on the charts and if you look at the chicken [exports] last year, almost 40 percent of it went to countries that are also vaccinating. I can’t understand why we can’t get together with those countries and figure this out so we don’t ruin trade. Nobody wants to hurt anybody in the poultry sector or in ag, period.”
Wesner also told Senators that all available options must be considered in order to find the right solution for stopping the Bird Flu outbreak.
“A product was brought to me this week that is not a vaccine, but a pharmaceutical that is being used in Russia with good results and it actually cures Avian Influenza. Is it real? I’m not sure, but we have to look at it. We have to go down and look at things like that to try to find an answer,” he said.
“There are people going hungry in this country and all over this world. We have to protect the protein. Anything that USDA and the federal government can do to be supportive of that—we really [need to] come up with an answer that makes sense for Avian Influenza and makes sense for the American consumer,” said Wesner.
During Wesner’s testimony, he says Rose Acre Farms—which is headquartered in Seymour, Indiana—has lost more than six million birds to Avian Influenza since January 1st of this year—which is 25 percent of their current production. Rose Acre Farms is also the second largest egg producer in the U.S. with a total of 17 egg production facilities across seven different states.
On Wednesday, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins unveiled a $1 billion plan to lower egg prices, curb the spread of the virus, and protect poultry producers. She said up to $100 million will be used to “explore pathways toward vaccines, therapeutics, and other strategies for protecting egg laying chickens to reduce instances of depopulation.”
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