Why Iowa consumers should care about bird flu

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, two lucky Minnesota turkeys were “pardoned” by President Joe Biden. The annual tradition, full of puns and antics, occurred this year against the backdrop of the deadliest wave of bird flu in U.S. history — with outbreaks across nine Iowa counties this fall alone.

The poultry industry would have you believe that there is no connection between the more than 60 million farmed birds who have died nationwide due to the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak that began in early 2022 and the bird on your holiday table. After all, health experts maintain that it is extremely unlikely for humans to contract the virus through food.

However, consumers concerned about the conditions in which animals are raised should take note: Poultry producers and state health officials in Iowa (the nation’s leading egg producer and among the hardest-hit states during the recent surge) have often chosen the most inhumane method available to “depopulate” flocks exposed to HPAI — ventilation shutdown plus heat (VSD+). It involves turning off the airflow in a barn and ratcheting up the temperature to induce heatstroke — essentially, baking trapped animals alive.

Poultry infected with HPAI typically suffer greatly before they die, and ending their lives is often in their own best interest. Once the disease is detected, though, the entire flock is killed to control disease spread. Using VSD+ to do so takes hours; during this time, healthy and infected birds alike experience extreme suffering.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture records, from February 2022 to July 2023, 21 of the 25 commercial depopulation events in Iowa resulting from HPAI used heatstroke to kill some or all of the operations’ birds — nearly 16 million turkeys and chickens.

Last month, Iowa agriculture officials announced the organized slaughter of 1.2 million hens on a Taylor County farm where bird flu had been detected. Additionally, two smaller commercial turkey flocks in Buena Vista County were hit in October. While it is too early to know if VSD+ was used in these recent depopulations, last year, farms in both counties used VSD+ alone or in combination with other methods to kill more than 6.4 million birds (including 5.3 million at Rembrandt Farms).

Depopulation killings are often described as “euthanasia,” a term whose Greek roots mean “good death.” Death by VSD+ is anything but. According to animal welfare experts, it can be prolonged, with pain, fear, and labored breathing before the animals eventually lose consciousness. The World Organisation for Animal Health — the leading international authority on the health and welfare of animals — does not consider VSD+ an acceptable method of killing animals. And more than 3,500 veterinary professionals have urged the American Veterinary Medical Association to classify killing via heatstroke as “not recommended” and promote more humane depopulation methods, such as using nitrogen gas.

As of June, the U.S. government had allocated nearly $1.3 billion to compensate producers for animals killed during outbreaks and other HPAI response activities. Earlier this year, my organization, the Animal Welfare Institute, petitioned the USDA to change its animal disease regulations to make eligibility for compensation contingent upon having an audited emergency response plan in place — one that includes strategies to humanely depopulate animals.

HPAI has become a year-round problem, reaching new corners of the globe. While bird flu is often portrayed as originating in migrating birds, the conversion of low pathogenic avian influenza (with little or no signs of disease) to deadly HPAI has occurred almost exclusively in commercial poultry production systems.

The Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds, convened by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, recently noted that “HPAI risks are high where production occurs in high-density settings,” joining a growing list of scientific bodies calling for reducing the density of commercial poultry farms.

We must call on government agencies and industrial farm operators to adopt measures that would improve the welfare of animals raised for food. Such measures should include effective preparation for what happens to the animals during disease outbreaks and other health and safety emergencies.

It’s no secret that farmed animals often suffer substantially while they’re still alive. They don’t deserve a cruel death.

Gwendolen Reyes-Illg, DVM, is a veterinary consultant for the Animal Welfare Institute.