Embargoes From Past Avian Flu Outbreaks Reduced Demand for U.S. Chicken Meat

On February 9, 2022, the USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial turkey flock in Indiana. HPAI spreads rapidly, is transmittable across different species of birds, and is often lethal to infected birds. Since 2000, outbreaks of HPAI in the United States occurred in 2004 and again in 2014–15. More animals were lost in the 2014–15 outbreak than in any other infectious animal disease event in U.S. history. These events affected poultry commerce on a global scale, decimating international demand for U.S. poultry products and reducing incomes of affected U.S. producers as well as producers whose flocks did not contract HPAI. Government efforts to mitigate the disease were effective but costly.