U.S. to test shots against bird flu outbreak, as Biden administration weighs poultry vaccinations
CBSN
Federal scientists are gearing up to test the first vaccines in poultry against bird flu in years, as Biden administration officials say they have now begun weighing an unprecedented shift in the U.S. strategy to counter the growing outbreak.
The move comes amid mounting concern over the threat posed by the ongoing spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza over the past few years, which has devastated flocks of wild and commercial birds around the continent.
A record 58 million birds — mostly commercially-raised poultry — have died in the outbreak so far, according to figures tallied by the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service — either killed by the virus itself or put down in efforts to quash its transmission. Every state has detected the virus spreading among wild birds and 47 have spotted them in poultry.
