Are We Subsidizing the Next Pandemic?

The rapid spread of highly pathogenic avian flu (HPAI) H5N1 through our agriculture system presents a deep threat to our food supply and a growing risk that the virus will mutate to become the next dangerous human pandemic. Sadly, the U.S. federal government response has not only been insufficient, but has actually worked to encourage the dangerous corporate practices driving this risk. Longtime close ties between federal agricultural regulators and the industry they are supposed to regulate has resulted in taxpayers actually footing the bill for programs that profit the industrial animal sector while making a human H5N1 pandemic more likely.

As of February 27, 2025, there have been 70 confirmed cases of the virus in humans in the U.S., causing one human death. While the virus has not yet been documented to spread between humans, researchers found that the H5N1 variant in dairy herds required only one mutation to spread more easily in humans. Given that H5N1 mutates rapidly, like other forms of influenza, scientists and public health officials are particularly concerned to know that we are just one mutation away from a potentially deadly human pandemic. The World Health Organization reports that, since 2003, 48.6 percent of global H5N1 cases in humans have been fatal.

Farm Forward’s review of current policies and data reveal six essential flaws with USDA’s response to the pandemic at poultry farms:

• USDA compensation payments to poultry farms with infected birds increase pandemic risk.
• USDA compensates repeat offenders.
• Current audits of safety measures are meaningless.
• Huge loopholes in safety requirements allow many farms to take no measures at all.
• Information blackout from the new administration leaves public health officials in the dark.
• Vaccine requirements lag far behind many other countries.