Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced today that applications are now open for $100 million in research grants to explore avian influenza prevention, therapeutics, research and potential vaccine candidates. 

The notice of funding opportunity, including application instructions and additional information, is available on the USDA Animal and Plant Health Service website. 

No vaccine has been authorized at this time, USDA noted. 

In a call to stakeholders and reporters, Rollins emphasized that wholesale egg prices are down 50% from their peak, but she added that, with Easter only a few weeks away, “there is always a possibility those prices could kick back up.”

Rollins left questions to Kailee Buller, her chief of staff, and APHIS Administrator Mike Watson. 

Asked whether USDA has any suggestions for consumers regarding whether eggs should be used for non-food purposes during Easter, Buller said that USDA hopes prices won’t go back up, and that the holiday should still be “memorable.”

Rollins emphasized that she has been discussing the avian influenza situation with other Trump administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

But when a reporter asked Buller if those conversations had included Kennedy’s recent suggestion that, instead of culling birds in a facility infected with avian influenza, the flu should be allowed to infect all birds so that those that are immune or resistant to the disease will be revealed, Buller said she had not been a part of those conversations and could not shed light on any discussion about that. 

During the call, Watson, the APHIS administrator, said that once a facility is infected the virus spreads quickly. 

Rollins noted that the United States is importing eggs from Turkey and South Korea. Buller said that once egg prices go down, the imports are likely to stop because market conditions will make the imports impractical.

(Separately, border officials have been confiscating eggs that American consumers have attempted to bring into the country at the Canadian and Mexican borders, the CBC reported.)

Asked if the vaccination research program also includes a vaccine for cattle, Watson said the focus at the present time is on a poultry vaccine.