Review - HR 9182 Introduced – Dairy H5N1 Biosecurity

Back in July, Rep Slotkin (D,MI) introduced HR 9182, the Avian Influenza Research and Response Act. The bill would require USDA to establish a dairy biosecurity education and training program, expand appropriations for research on national or regional problems, and add highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to the list of zoonotic diseases qualifying for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The bill would authorize $5 million per year through 2029 for the biosecurity education and training program.

Moving Forward

Slotkin and her two cosponsors {Rep Valadao (R,CA) and Rep Caraveo (D,CO)}, are members of the House Agriculture Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. Other than the one relatively minor authorization increase, I see nothing in the bill that would engender any organized opposition. I suspect that the bill would have some level of bipartisan support, but whether that support would be sufficient to see the bill considered by the Full House under the suspension of the rules process. In the waning days of the 118^th Congress, a better move may be to have the bill’s language included in the 2025 Farm Bill which has yet to be considered by the House.

Commentary

It is somewhat disappointing to not see supplemental funding for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to allow that agency to further expand dairy herd testing for the presence of H5N1 infections and dairy worker surveillance testing. Unfortunately, given the general Republican resistance to mandatory medical testing of any sort, such supplemental funding probably would have provided a focus for organized opposition to the bill.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/148571067/share-center - subscription required.

OMB Approves HPAI Emergency ICR for Dairy Cattle

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved an emergency information collection request from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for “HPAI: Testing, Surveillance, and Reporting of HPAI in Livestock; Dairy Herd Certification”. OIRA notes that APHIS has already been collecting this information without an approved ICR, that may explain the delay (request submitted June 28^th, 2024) in approving the emergency ICR.

The supporting document for this ICR provides a good summary of the problems associated with the recent discovery of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in dairy herds and the USDA’s response activities.

Bills Introduced – 5-14-24

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session there were 54 bills introduced. None of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog.

I would like to mention one bill in passing:

HR 8374 To prohibit Federal interference with the interstate traffic of unpasteurized milk and milk products that are packaged for direct human consumption. Massie, Thomas [Rep.-R-KY-4]

With the recent discovery of viral fragments of H5N1 virus in pasteurized cow’s milk from a variety of milk sources the need for the pasteurization of whole milk as a public health measure has become even more apparent. Pasteurization destroyed the effectiveness of the H5N1 virus to replicate, that is how we ended up with ‘viral fragments’ of the virus in pasteurized milk. Bills of this type pander to the anti-science, anti-vaccination crowd and their paranoia about government health measures. Fortunately, this bill has little chance of being considered, much less passed even in this House.