“I believe we need dairy vaccination in the toolbox yesterday, especially for regions currently free from disease,” Annette Jones, the California state veterinarian and director of Animal Health and Food Safety Services at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, testified before the House Agriculture Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Subcommittee.
“If I were a poultry producer, beef producer, swine producer or dairy producer, I would be banging my fist on the table to vaccinate dairy cattle way ahead of poultry,” Jones added. “If USDA can successfully keep trade doors open when millions of dairy cows are actively infected with H5N1, I am confident that they can get the job done if we use vaccine selectively to protect these girls.”
In her submitted testimony, Jones also noted that “of the 17 states with known infected dairy cows, 12 have experienced poultry cases directly from these herds.” She also noted that the current HPAI outbreak has cost USDA almost $2 billion. “Without early disease detection and accurate test results to make rapid decisions, the expense and the toll on animals and people would be much higher,” Jones said.
In his opening statement, Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kan., said that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act had increased funding for the NAHLN network of more than 60 state and university laboratories around the country well as funding for the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program and National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank.
Mann said, “The One Big Beautiful Bill included $233 million per year for the three-legged stool, with $10 million per year directed towards the NAHLN laboratories, which is on top of existing discretionary funding. This funding will increase diagnostic capabilities, improve research, assist in disease surveillance, and strengthen our overall capacity as a nation to prevent, detect and mitigate foreign animal diseases.”
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