'It’s exploding faster and faster': Arizona farms, consumers face the growing toll of bird flu

As you may have noticed, the price of eggs has skyrocketed in recent months.

But the problem has little to do with inflation. It has a lot more to do with a virus that’s responsible for millions of laying hens around the country and here in Arizona being euthanized.

And no place has felt the effects of bird flu more than Hickman’s Family Farms, based in Buckeye.

“The virus is in the environment. Everybody was complying with all the procedures, including showering, change of clothes, everything and we still got it,” said Glenn Hickman, who runs the farm that started on his grandmother’s porch in Glendale with a flock of 50 chickens in 1944.

Two recent outbreaks of the latest strain of the virus, called H5N1, in November and again in January, forced them to euthanize over 1 million laying hens.

“We were able to get a clean bill of health. We sanitized, sterilized, swabbed the barns multiple times to make sure we had eliminated the virus. And we started putting birds back in there on Jan. 6, and on Jan. 22 they became reinfected," Hickman said.

Hickman says farms around the country have had to kill off 40 million hens in recent months, and there’s no sign of the virus going away.

“It was thought to be seasonal," he said. "We had the first infection of this go around in February of 2022 in Maryland, so we are at the three-year mark right now and it doesn’t — if anything, it’s exploding faster and faster."

Hickman sees only one solution to eradicate this latest strain.

“There’s been countries in Europe that have been fighting the same battle and they’ve chosen to vaccinate their poultry. And so, that’s what they’ve done to protect their food supply, because at the end of the day, we are making food.”

Expert says vaccinations must be at least part of the plan

Chelsey Heath/KJZZ

And that vaccine is American-made. So why isn't it being used here?

Arizona’s state veterinarian, Dr. Ryan Wolker, says it hasn’t gotten to that point, just yet.

“We have maintained that status without the benefit of vaccinations, so on the international stage, that does give the United States significant advantages for trade agreements, so if we start vaccinating, we lose some of that access.”

But Wolker says since it’s been going on so long now, it needs to be addressed differently and vaccinations must be at least part of the plan.

"We’re going on the third year of this outbreak and so we have to look at all options on the table to include vaccination going forward, just given how long this outbreak has been going on.”

Wolker says that would also involve inoculating dairy cows who have been infected with a different strain of the virus that could make it spread more easily in mammals.

For now he says humans have little to fear, unless they drink unpasteurized milk.

“The cases that have been identified in humans across the country have been in poultry farms workers or dairy farm workers that have very close contact with those animals, or birds for extended periods of time. And so the risk to the general populace is very, very low,” Wolker said.

'It would be all hands on deck'

Andrew Bernier/KJZZ

Will Humble, who is executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, agrees there’s little threat to humans, right now. But that could change.

“This is a crafty virus and it’s able to mutate itself, and has been able to since the beginning of time. And it’s trying to find a way to infect humans, someway somehow," Humble said.

Humble believes that’s why it needs to be contained as soon as possible.

“Eventually it’s possible that one of those mutations will turn it from what is now largely an agricultural virus, mostly with poultry, into something that would spread human to human and cause bad clinical outcomes. Now that hasn’t happened, and may not happen at all. But if it does, it would be all hands on deck.”

Whether for humans or animals though, vaccine skepticism has taken over at the highest levels of government.

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine advocate, has said there’s no evidence shots will work and that they quote “appear dangerous."

Volker doesn’t believe it’ll be an issue.

“I don’t think the quote unquote anti-vaxxer sentiment plays a role in this. You know, we do rely on science and evidence-based medicine to dictate strategies going forward,” Wolker said.

Glenn Hickman says because bird flu has cut the supply of eggs by 10% to 15% nationwide, egg prices shouldn’t be a touchstone for partisan politics.

“Democrats, Republicans and independents alike eat eggs. And so it’s non-partisan. Food production is non-partisan. Both parties want to use the price of eggs as a token to stand in for inflation.”

If we don’t vaccinate the animals, Hickman says, we’ll have to vaccinate the people.