US to spend $10 million to curb bird flu in farm workers, including vaccine push

By Leah Douglas and Julie Steenhuysen

(Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday it plans to spend $10 million to curb farm worker bird flu infections, including $5 million for seasonal flu vaccines, as part of its efforts to avoid further spread and mutation of the virus.

The ongoing outbreak of bird flu has infected poultry flocks in nearly every U.S. state since 2022 and more than 170 dairy herds in 13 states since March, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Thirteen poultry and dairy farm workers have contracted the virus in Colorado, Michigan and Texas, according to the CDC. Nine of those cases were detected in July among workers killing chickens at two poultry farms with bird flu in Colorado.

The risk to the general public from bird flu is still low, CDC's principal director Nirav Shah said on a call with reporters.

The CDC does not currently have any further human tests awaiting confirmation, though additional human cases in Colorado or elsewhere are possible, Shah added.

The Atlanta-based agency will allocate $5 million to organizations including the National Center for Farmworker Health to educate and train workers on protecting themselves from bird flu, and another $5 million to providing seasonal flu shots to farm workers, Shah said.

Though the seasonal flu vaccine does not provide protection from bird flu, the vaccine push could reduce the risk that workers become infected with the seasonal flu and bird flu at the same time, which could lead to flu virus mutations, Shah added.

"Preventing seasonal influenza for these workers, many of whom are also exposed to bird flu, may reduce risks of new strains of influenza emerging," Shah said.

The CDC is hoping to vaccinate all of the nation's approximately 200,000 livestock workers during this year's flu shot season and is working with states to develop plans to reach the workers, Shah added.

The USDA believes it can stop the spread of bird flu among dairy cows and eventually eradicate the disease, Eric Deeble, an agency undersecretary, said on the call.

(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Additional reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Will Dunham)