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The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) amended the regulations pertaining to conditions for payment of indemnity for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to require commercial poultry premises to successfully pass a biosecurity audit for HPAI-infected premises intending to restock and for buffer zone (uninfected) premises that wish to request that poultry be moved onto the premises.

Statement of Need:

Conditioning restocking of poultry flocks on passing a biosecurity audit will help reduce introduction of HPAI virus from wild bird populations, particularly chronically noncompliant "hot spots" that can serve as reservoir for the spread of HPAI.

Summary of the Legal Basis:

Animal Health Protection Act.

Alternatives:

APHIS considered alternatives to the interim rule. APHIS considered a more traditional rulemaking process, or utilizing the NPIP biennial rulemaking process, which involves industry participation.  However, the extended timeline associated with this approach made it unsuitable when APHIS has identified a need for immediate action. Immediate action is necessary to incentivize commercial poultry producers to implement critical biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of introduction of HPAI and avoid actions that contribute to its spread.  Lastly, APHIS considered a proposal that would tie indemnity payments to a tiered system based on performance in the biosecurity audit.  However, this approach lacked sufficient scientific backing.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

APHIS estimated costs of producers to comply with the interim final rule will result in $0.49 to $0.79 million in time, materials, and recordkeeping costs.  Examples of costs include time and labor to implement improvements to current biosecurity practices, time to complete and pass biosecurity audits, delays to restocking, and costs associated with the purchase of or upgrade to equipment needed to conduct a virtual audit, if the producer wishes to have a virtual audit.  APHIS expects the benefits of reduced infections from HPAI will outweigh the aforementioned costs associated with this interim rule.

APHIS estimates that this interim rule will reduce overall costs to APHIS and State partners between $39.56 million and $88.66 million.  These estimates include reductions in indemnity and response costs, less costs incurred by APHIS and State partners for buffer zone movement audits and previously infected premises audits.  Overall, APHIS estimates that this rule will have a net benefit of between $38.55 and $87.65 million. In addition to these quantified benefits, APHIS also anticipates that this interim rule will have small unquantified effects on international trade, consumer prices, animal welfare, public health, and producer welfare.

Risks:

Some premises are becoming reinfected multiple times with HPAI within a short period of time.  For example, since 2022, some premises have now experienced five HPAI introductions.