[Senate Hearing 114-452]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 114-452
STOPPING AN AVIAN INFLUENZA THREAT TO ANIMAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JULY 8, 2015
__________
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov/
Printed for the use of the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
21-257 PDF WASHINGTON : 2016
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing
Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800;
DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC,
Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
RAND PAUL, Kentucky JON TESTER, Montana
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey
JONI ERNST, Iowa GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
BEN SASSE, Nebraska
Keith B. Ashdown, Staff Director
Gabriel S. Sudduth, Senior Professional Staff Member
Gabrielle A. Batkin, Minority Staff Director
John P. Kilvington, Minority Deputy Staff Director
Robert H. Bradley II, Minority Professional Staff Member
Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
Lauren M. Corcoran, Hearing Clerk
C O N T E N T S
------
Opening statements:
Page
Senator Johnson.............................................. 1
Senator Carper............................................... 2
Senator Tester............................................... 17
Senator Ernst................................................ 20
Senator Peters............................................... 22
Senator Baldwin.............................................. 25
Prepared statements:
Senator Johnson.............................................. 41
Senator Carper............................................... 43
WITNESSES
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
John R. Clifford, D.V.M., Deputy Administrator, Animal and Planet
Health Inspection Service, and Chief Veterinary Officer, U.S.
Department of Agriculture...................................... 4
Anne Schuchat, M.D., Director, National Center for Immunization
and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, and Assistant Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health
Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.......... 6
Christopher P. Currie, Director, Homeland Security and Justice,
U.S. Government Accountability Office; accompanied by Steve D.
Morris, Director, Natural Resources and Environment, U.S.
Government Accountability Office............................... 8
Jack Gelb, Jr., Ph.D., Director, Avian Biosciences Center,
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of
Delaware....................................................... 10
Scott Schneider, Owner, Nature Link Farm, Jefferson, Wisconsin,
and President, Wisconsin Poultry and Egg Industries Association 12
Alphabetical List of Witnesses
Clifford, John R., D.V.M.:
Testimony.................................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 45
Currie, Christopher P.:
Testimony.................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 58
Gelb, Jack Jr., Ph.D.:
Testimony.................................................... 10
Prepared statement........................................... 73
Schneider, Scott:
Testimony.................................................... 12
Prepared statement........................................... 81
Schuchat, Anne M.D.:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 52
APPENDIX
Chart referenced by Senator Johnson.............................. 84
Statement submitted for the Record from Dave Rettig, Rembrandt
Foods.......................................................... 86
Statement submitted for the Record from University of Wisconsin-
Madison........................................................ 89
STOPPING AN AVIAN INFLUENZA THREAT TO ANIMAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH
----------
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2015
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in
room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Ron Johnson,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Johnson, Lankford, Ernst, Sasse, Carper,
McCaskill, Tester, Baldwin, and Peters.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JOHNSON
Chairman Johnson. Good morning. This hearing is called to
order.
I want to first thank the witnesses for taking the time to
come here this morning and the time you have taken to provide
some very thoughtful and, I think, important testimony.
This hearing is really about the recent outbreak of avian
influenza (AI), bird flu, that has plagued, really, primarily
the Upper Midwest, although it has--we have a map\1\ here--
unfortunately, we do not have a chart--but it has been
sprinkled out west, a little bit further east. Fortunately for
Senator Carper's State, it has not gone up and down the Eastern
Seaboard yet.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The map referenced by Senator Johnson appears in the Appendix
on page 84.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
But, this is a serious issue. We have a mission statement
for this Committee: To enhance the economic and national
security of this country. This is an economic issue, and it is
a very serious one. I do ask for unanimous consent to offer my
written opening statement for the record,\2\ but I do want to
just cover some quick statistics here because I think we may be
interrupted by votes a little bit later on.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ The prepared statement of Senator Johnson appears in the
Appendix on page 41.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
But, in terms of how this is going to effect our economy,
there are 300 million egg-laying chickens. Over 40 million of
them have been affected by this and have been destroyed. That
is 13.3 percent of the total egg-laying population. There are
238 million turkeys raised every year. Eight million have had
to be euthanized because of this outbreak. That is estimated to
be about an $8 billion impact in our economy. And fortunately,
we have not seen a new outbreak since about mid-June, and the
migration period is over, but it will startup again in the
fall. And, so, we are extremely concerned about what is going
to happen when we have the migratory bird pattern once again.
The purpose of this hearing really is to examine what our
initial reaction was to the outbreak this spring and also ask
and really explore what our reaction is going to be, how we are
going to further limit the damage for additional outbreaks
that--I hate to say it--probable in the fall, including--we do
not want to alarm anybody here, but we have all heard about
bird flu potentially mutating from animals to human beings, and
that is why we have a pretty good panel here to discuss that
and try and minimize the concern, but also provide assurance
that we are going to be monitoring that and do everything we
can if something were to happen.
But, we have a real good panel, people from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA), a representative from the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), from the Government
Accountability Office (GAO), a professor from Senator Carper's
home State, and Senator Carper will introduce Professor Gelb,
and we have a victim, not a direct victim--you are a human--but
somebody from the State of Wisconsin who lost his entire egg-
laying flock of 200,000 chickens. Scott Schneider is here to
just describe what he has gone through and his appreciation for
what the USDA has done, but also just the frustrations in terms
of getting compensated in a timely manner, as well, and that is
part of the hearing.
But, again, this is, I think, a very important hearing and
totally appropriate for this Committee.
So, with that, I will turn it over to our Ranking Member,
Senator Tom Carper, who, like I say, so far, Delaware has
dodged the bullet, and let us hope that remains the case
throughout the year.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CARPER
Senator Carper. Thanks. We have not always dodged the
bullet, as Jack Gelb knows. So far, we have been lucky. What is
the saying, it is better to be smart--or lucky than smart.
Lucky than smart. So far, pretty smart, and so far, we have
been lucky. It does not mean we will always be.
I welcome you all today. I especially want to welcome Jack
Gelb from Delaware. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you and your
staff, others who worked on this hearing, and we look forward
to hearing from each of you.
As some of you in the room know, the issue of avian
influenza is important, I think to our country, to all of us.
To the Delmarva Peninsula, which includes parts of Delaware,
Maryland, and Virginia, it is hugely important. We raise more
chickens in Sussex County, Delaware--we only have three
counties. Sussex County is the third-largest county in America
and we raise more chickens there than any county in America. We
raise more soybean there than any county in America. And a big
part of our agri-economy, about 80 percent of our agri-economy
in Delaware is poultry. So, it is hugely important for us.
My hope is we come away from this hearing more confident
than ever in the strength and the importance of America's
poultry industry and be better prepared to respond to any
further outbreaks, should they occur.
I think some of you know this, but I am going to say it
again. The poultry industry is an integral part of our national
economy. It supports over one million jobs nationwide and about
$350 billion in total economic activity every year. Some of the
industry is tied, as the Chairman has said, to egg production,
which several of our colleagues know very well. Other parts of
the industry, as in my home State of Delaware, focus on the
kind of chickens we eat, and ``Delmarvalous'' is actually a
word on the Delmarva Peninsula, and we call the chickens we
eat, we call them ``broilers.'' I do not know what you call
them where you come from, but we call them broilers.
As some of you know, the birthplace of the broiler industry
actually comes from Sussex County, Delaware, that big county.
We are very proud of that. And the industry brought to Delaware
about $3 billion in economic activity, I think, last year.
And, we export our chickens all over the world. The Trans-
Pacific Trade Partnership which we are attempting to negotiate
and will probably have a chance to vote up or down on later
this year, one of the pushes there is to be able to sell
chickens into Canada. They keep us out. They impose a 200
percent tariff on our poultry products going into Canada.
Needless to say, we do not sell a lot of chickens there. And,
Senator Chris Coons has worked very hard to get the markets
opened up to Africa, and hopefully, we can be successful in the
Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership and Africa and places like
that, and instead of exporting 20 percent of our chickens
around the world, we will take that to 25 or 30 or even higher.
Some parts of the poultry industry, particularly in the
Midwest, continue to grapple with the devastating impacts of
the recent outbreak of avian influenza. We have lost millions
of chickens and turkeys to this disease and the economic losses
are staggering. If that is not bad enough, some of our biggest
trading partners have temporarily closed their doors to our
poultry exports, and in some instances these bans affect not
just one State, but every State that produces poultry products,
not just those that have had a confirmed case of avian
influenza.
Thankfully, there is also some good news. The frequency of
new cases, as we know, has shown significant drops in recent
weeks. Broiler chickens have yet to contract the virus. And, as
of now, there is no evidence that there is a threat to human
health.
We have farmers all across America to thank for much of
this fortunate news. Their efforts, their sacrifices really
made a difference. I would also like to recognize our Federal
and State agricultural and public health officials for all of
their hard work. Our friends in academia and industry have also
done a great job.
It is not a time to pat ourselves on the back, not a time
to rest on our laurels. The possibility of new outbreaks, even
here on the East Coast, is real, and all of us need to remain
on high alert. This is especially true as we move into the
migratory season in the coming months.
Today's hearing provides an important opportunity to better
understand the threats posed by avian flu. It will also help us
examine the steps so many people are taking to not only put an
end to this outbreak, but to ensure that new cases do not
spring up somewhere else. We should also use this hearing to
identify lessons learned from our response as well as any best
practices that can make a difference in stopping future
outbreaks.
I am especially interested in hearing from Dr. Gelb about
measures we have taken in Delaware and on the Delmarva
Peninsula that could be applied nationwide to further contain
the spread of this virus.
At the end of the day, we all need to work together to stop
the spread of avian influenza. We all have a dog in this fight.
That is mixing metaphors, I think, but a dog in this fight. We
must all continue to act with a sense of urgency to reassure
Americans, along with people all over the world, that our eggs
as well as the meat from our chickens and our turkeys are safe
to eat.
This current outbreak is a very serious matter, no doubt
about it. We have experts around the country like those before
us today who have dealt with these issues before and are laser
focused on stopping the spread of this disease. With continued
hard work and coordination and determination, we can and will
solve this problem together.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Senator Carper.
It is the tradition of this Committee to swear in
witnesses, so if you will all rise and raise your right hand.
Do you swear the testimony you will give before this
Committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth, so help you, God?
Dr. Clifford. I do.
Dr. Schuchat. I do.
Mr. Currie. I do.
Mr. Gelb. I do.
Mr. Schneider. I do.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you. Please be seated.
Our first witness is Dr. John Clifford. Dr. Clifford is the
Deputy Administrator and Chief Veterinary Officer for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS). In that position, he provides leadership for
safeguarding animal health nationwide. He has served at USDA
since 1997 in a variety of positions across the country. Dr.
Clifford.
TESTIMONY OF JOHN R. CLIFFORD, D.V.M.,\1\ DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR,
ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, AND CHIEF
VETERINARY OFFICER, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Dr. Clifford. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Members of the
Committee, and thank you for the opportunity to testify on
behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Dr. Clifford appears in the Appendix
on page 45.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In recent weeks, the number of new detections of high path
AI found in U.S. poultry farms has slowed considerably. In
fact, it has been a little over 3 weeks now, I think, for Iowa
and over 4 weeks for the State of Minnesota. A few farms
impacted by this disease months ago have started the long
process of repopulating with new poultry.
These are bright spots in the largest animal health
emergency in our country's history. While encouraging
developments, the impact of this unprecedented disease outbreak
is still being felt throughout our industries. Trading partners
have restricted U.S. poultry exports, and the risk of disease
reemerging in the fall is significant.
Our hearts go out to the affected producers, their
employees, and the communities they live in and support. I
assure you that this disease has the USDA's fullest attention
and we are committed to standing with our producers and
industry to get them back on their feet.
The Secretary is leading efforts to respond to this virus,
to assist producers and maintain trade markets. As we look to
the fall, we will be ready for the challenge.
More than 400 USDA staff and over 2,000 USDA contracted
personnel have been working around the clock in every affected
State on the response. We delivered over $180 million in
indemnification payments to producers to control the spread of
the disease and to help them recover. All told, USDA has
committed over $500 million, an amount more than half of the
APHIS yearly budget, in responding aggressively to this
outbreak. We can and will request additional funds should we
need to.
We have carefully studied and assessed the epidemiology of
this virus as well as our response efforts in conjunction with
our State and industry partners. We know that wild birds
brought this disease to the Western United States in late 2014.
As the birds and the virus moved into the Midwest, we saw point
source introductions as well as farm-to-farm spread of the
virus. Although we cannot pinpoint a single specific practice
that caused this, our epidemiological report suggests that
lapses in biosecurity were a contributing factor. We have
talked at length with our State and industry partners about our
findings and the need for all of us to think more
comprehensively about on-farm biosecurity.
We all agree that we are in this fight together. We have a
shared interest in eradicating this disease and getting the
poultry industry back on its feet.
Last week, we met with industry and State officials to
ensure that we have a high level of preparedness to deal with
the reemergence and possible spread of this virus come fall. We
encouraged our partners to review the existing avian influenza
response plans so that they will understand what we expect and
what actions we will need them to take should the disease
strike.
We are also urging States and industry to develop site and
county-level specific depopulation plans for landfilling or
composting of birds. Our experience in the Midwest showed that
the biggest roadblock to efficient depopulation is the lack of
ready sites to receive and process dead birds.
For our part, we are taking proactive steps to be ready for
the fall. We are identifying staffing needs and hiring more
than 450 additional temporary employees, including 210 animal
health technicians and 90 veterinary medical officers. We are
also developing a potential vaccine strategy. Should we decide
to use vaccine to address the outbreak, we will have the
systems in place to do so.
As part of our planning, we are also working with our
partners to increase surveillance of wild bird populations. We
need to be able to identify the virus' presence as quickly as
possible to be able to stamp it out.
Later this month, we will be meeting directly with State
veterinarians and industry to discuss the need for more
biosecurity. The meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, will help ensure
that our collective biosecurity is more stringent and that we
are as prepared as we can be for the fall.
I want to thank all of our partners in the industry and the
States for their cooperation in this process. Their efforts and
their willingness to work with us are appreciated and will help
us as we plan for the fall.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony. Thank you.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Dr. Clifford.
Our next witness is Dr. Anne Schuchat. Dr. Schuchat is
currently the Director of the National Center for Immunization
and Respiratory Diseases with the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, a position she has held since 2005. She is
Assistant Surgeon General within the U.S. Public Health
Service. She joined the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in 1988 as an Epidemic Intelligence Services
Officer. Dr. Schuchat.
TESTIMONY OF ANNE SCHUCHAT, M.D.,\1\ DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CENTER
FOR IMMUNIZATION AND RESPIRATORY DISEASES, CENTERS FOR DISEASE
CONTROL AND PREVENTION, AND ASSISTANT SURGEON GENERAL, U.S.
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES
Dr. Schuchat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the
Committee. I am here to discuss the potential public health
impact from the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)
outbreaks in U.S. birds and CDC's actions to prepare for human
infections with these viruses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Dr. Schuchat appears in the Appendix
on page 52.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Influenza virus is a formidable adversary. The virus's
propensity to change presents unique challenges, and each human
case of infection with an animal influenza virus represents the
potential for a pandemic. Strong collaboration between animal
and human health sectors and robust domestic and international
partnerships are critical to identify, monitor, and respond to
viruses of concern, like the highly pathogenic avian influenza
viruses currently circulating in birds in the United States.
CDC continues to assess the risk for these viruses for the
general public as low. However, people with close or prolonged
unprotected contact with infected birds or contaminated
environments are likely at greater risk of infection. This
includes poultry workers and workers responding to the current
outbreaks in U.S. birds.
Although there have been no reported human cases of H5
influenza among Americans to date, CDC is taking action to
prepare and ensure that we have the systems and tools in place
to protect the public's health. We have issued public health
guidance for testing, treatment, and prophylaxis and worker
protection.
In January, we posted guidance for clinicians and public
health professionals on testing, specimen collection, and
processing for people who may be infected with novel influenza
A viruses. We posted guidance on the followup and antiviral
chemoprophylaxis for people exposed to these viruses. And the
Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) amended its
guidance on use of antiviral drugs stockpiled for a flu
pandemic to be available for use in response to the current
domestic outbreaks.
In June, we posted recommendations for worker protection
and the use of personal protective equipment. We recommend
personal protective equipment (PPE), for those in direct
contact or going into buildings with sick or dead birds and
carcasses, feces, or litter from potentially infected poultry.
Recommended personal protective equipment includes properly
fitted safety goggles, disposable gloves, boots, and an
appropriate respirator, as well as disposable fluid-resistant
coveralls.
We have protocols in place for field investigations and
contact tracing in the event of a suspected novel flu case.
State health departments are asked to investigate potential
human cases of H5 virus infection and notify us within 24 hours
of identifying a person under investigation. The States are
monitoring the health of workers who have had contact with
infected poultry for signs and symptoms of illness that could
occur within 10 days of their last exposure. We have also
equipped and trained public health labs to detect novel flu
strains, including the recent H5 strains, using test kits that
we developed and distributed.
We have received samples of these viruses and carry out
genetic analyses, which do not show any markers previously
associated with increased severity or transmissibility in
people. We have also got ongoing studies in animals, including
mice and ferrets, to evaluate the transmissibility and disease
severity of these viruses. Seasonal flu vaccines do not protect
against avian influenza, so we are preparing candidate vaccine
viruses for humans, should a vaccine become necessary.
The collaboration between CDC and the USDA is critical to
our efforts to protect Americans from avian and other novel
influenza viruses with pandemic potential. During the current
outbreak, we have coordinated messaging and communications,
collaborated on the analyses of the viruses and the development
of candidate vaccine viruses, and we have embedded a CDC
influenza expert with the USDA Incident Command Unit for this
response.
I want to emphasize the importance of our collaboration
with USDA and our strong partner networks for successful
response to flu and other infectious disease threats. There
must be strong public health capacity at the Federal, State,
and local levels. Our investments in domestic public health
capacity, surveillance, communication, and public health
preparedness will help protect the public in this and future
outbreaks. Effective preparedness and response requires strong
collaboration between public health and clinicians and the
health system.
Our global partnerships continue to protect Americans from
infectious disease threats like this. We work with ministries
of health, public health labs, and the World Health
Organization (WHO) to strengthen global capacity to conduct flu
surveillance, perform lab testing, and prepare to respond to
influenza pandemics. More rapid detection and characterization
of novel flu viruses bolsters our Nation's preparedness.
The current H5 avian influenza situation has caused
enormous impact on farmers and agricultural communities in
several States, but fortunately, it has not yet led to human
infections. This is only one of the challenges that influenza
viruses pose to our economy and health. We must continue the
efforts to detect, respond, and prevent the consequences that
these viruses pose here and around the world.
Thank you.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Dr. Schuchat.
Our next witness is Mr. Chris Currie. Mr. Currie is a
Director at the Government Accountability Office, where he
leads the agency's work in evaluating emergency management,
national preparedness, and critical infrastructure protection
issues. He is accompanied by Steve Morris, a Director at GAO's
Natural Resources and Environment Team, which leads food safety
and agriculture issues. Mr. Currie.
TESTIMONY OF CHRISTOPHER P. CURRIE,\1\ DIRECTOR, HOMELAND
SECURITY AND JUSTICE, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE;
ACCOMPANIED BY STEVE D. MORRIS, DIRECTOR, NATURAL RESOURCES AND
ENVIRONMENT, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
Mr. Currie. Thank you, Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member
Carper and other Members of the Committee that are here today.
We appreciate the opportunity to testify before you. Thank you
for the introduction. As you mentioned, I handle our work on
emergency management and national preparedness issues. Steve,
sitting behind me, is responsible for our work on food safety
and agriculture and he can answer any questions that I cannot
that may come up in that area.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Currie appears in the Appendix on
page 58.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, I would like to discuss some key themes and
recommendations across GAO's biodefense work, particularly as
it pertains to the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian
influenza in the Midwest. While we have not evaluated the
response to the current outbreak yet, we plan to do so very
soon, later this year. We have reported on efforts to prepare
and respond to such outbreaks, though. We have also reported at
the highest levels on broad national biosurveillance and
defense efforts and coordination, all the way down to more
specific efforts within sectors like food and agriculture.
It is important to note that biodefense in the United
States is a huge and complex effort that requires coordination
and cooperation among different Federal agencies, various
levels of government, and the private sector. Our work has
shown that preparing for emergencies, whether they be natural
disasters, accidents, or intentional attacks, requires careful
planning to better know who is responsible for doing what, how
we will coordinate, and what resources we are going to need.
One key area we have evaluated is biosurveillance at the
Federal, State, and local level, and that is a big word, but
biosurveillance is the collection, analysis, and interpretation
of data to better monitor pathogens in either humans, animals,
plants, or in the food and agriculture sector. Coordinating
biosurveillance efforts is a challenge because it requires
working across traditional agency boundaries and missions, such
as CDC and USDA. For example, Departments of Health and Human
Services, Agriculture, and Homeland Security all have separate
missions and authorities but have common goals under the
Federal framework for preparing for and responding to disease
outbreaks.
Planning and coordination are so important because they
dictate the actions that will be taken in the event of a real
emergency. For example, in 2010, we found that there was no
national strategy or designated focal point lead for developing
national biosurveillance capabilities. We recommended the
Homeland Security Council (HSC), which is within the White
House, develop a strategy and designate a focal point for
coordination.
They did issue a strategy in 2012 and designated a focal
point. However, that strategy has not yet identified certain
resource and investment needs and priorities, which was an
element we thought was critical to help prioritize resources
across such a complex enterprise, such as biosurveillance.
Now, drilling down a little deeper into the area of animal
and plant disease surveillance, our findings are very similar.
In 2004, the President issued Homeland Security Presidential
Directive 9 (HSPD-9), to better coordinate various Federal
agencies' responsibilities and efforts in animal and food
surveillance. For example, under HSPD-9, the Homeland Security
Department is responsible for coordinating efforts across all
Federal agencies, like HHS and USDA. However, while DHS has
made some efforts, it really has not yet fulfilled that role
fully.
In addition, we found that USDA had not developed a
Department-wide strategy for implementing all of its HSPD-9
requirements. We recommended that they do so and they told us
that they intended to do so, but that resource challenges and
certain competing priorities have sort of stalled those efforts
so far.
So, back in 2007, we reported on various Federal efforts to
prepare for and respond to an avian flu outbreak similar to the
one we are facing now and made several recommendations. For
example, we recommended that USDA, one, identify the
capabilities it would need among Federal, State, local, and
private entities to respond to an outbreak; two, develop a
response plan that identified various responsibilities and
resource needs; three, help States develop their own response
plans for high path avian influenza; and four, conduct
exercises to actually test these response plans.
Now, USDA implemented all of these recommendations and now
these response plans and actions are being tested during a real
life outbreak and with some new challenges, as Dr. Clifford
mentioned, such as the disposal issue.
So, we will continue to monitor these efforts and will
begin work looking at the specific response later this year.
This completes my prepared remarks and Steve and I would be
happy to answer any questions you have.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Currie.
I think we will have Senator Carper introduce our next
witness.
Senator Carper. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
I am pleased to introduce Mr. Jack Gelb, Jr., the Director
of the University of Delaware's Avian Biosciences Center. As
the Director, Dr. Gelb coordinates teaching and research
activities at the center and participates in national and
international outreach. He also receives the center's poultry
disease surveillance efforts and worked closely with Delaware's
agricultural sector on matters of poultry health. Dr. Gelb is a
poultry industry-wide recognized expert.
He is joined today by his wife of 39 years, Becky, joined
by their 11 children and their 37 grandchildren in the
audience. [Laughter.]
Well, part of that is true. [Laughter.]
His wife of 39 years, Becky, is here. We rode down here on
the train together. It was nice to see them. They left all
their children and grandchildren at home. They do not have 11
children and 37, but when asked why they have such a healthy
family, Jack and Becky also said, ``We eat a lot of chicken.''
[Laughter.]
Jack, welcome.
Chairman Johnson. Good thing we do not swear you in.
[Laughter.]
Dr. Gelb. Thank you, Senator Carper.
Senator Carper. There is an old saying that says, never let
the truth get in the way of a good story. [Laughter.]
TESTIMONY OF JACK GELB, JR., PH.D.,\1\ DIRECTOR, AVIAN
BIOSCIENCES CENTER, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL
RESOURCES, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
Dr. Gelb. That is very true. Thank you very much, and it is
a great pleasure and, in fact, an honor to be with you today.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Dr. Gelb appears in the Appendixn on
page 73.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delmarva and the Delmarva region, which includes the
Eastern Shore counties of the States of Maryland and Virginia,
experienced a low pathogenicity avian influenza outbreak
firsthand in 2004. We were very fortunate to have a successful
outcome because of advance planning and rapid implementation of
the regional response plan by our incident command system.
We are very fortunate in Delaware to have many outstanding
experts in the poultry health field. These are, again, within
academia, but I also want to emphasize within our poultry
companies. We are very blessed to have those individuals
working hand-in-hand with us. And, obviously, members of the
States and the Federal Government.
Only three farms were positive in our Delmarva incident,
which is remarkable given the very high densities of poultry
and farms in the Delmarva region.
AI outcomes, like those of cancer and other potentially
fatal diseases, are time dependent. Recognition at the earliest
stage of the disease is critical. But, unlike cancer, the
situation with AI is arguably a bit more complex because the AI
virus, the cause of the disease, is highly contagious and it
will multiply to enormous concentrations in poultry and spread
via the air and by off-farm movement of infected poultry, human
carriers, and contaminated farm equipment.
All normal farm activities must cease immediately when AI
strikes, and the farm must be prepared to implement an
emergency biosecurity plan. Part of the emergency plan is that
infected flocks must be depopulated, ideally within 24 hours,
at the earliest time following the identification of the virus
on the farm. This is important to end animal suffering and,
importantly, to stop the spread of the virus into the
environment, which represents a very significant threat in
transmission.
There are several areas that I went into more detail as far
as things that we might look at in the future. I will just
briefly refer to them here.
No. 1, develop and implement educational outreach
biosecurity programs designed to help farmers to respond to
avian influenza on their facilities. Biosecurity is a term that
describes everyday and emergency disease processes a farmer
uses to prevent and control diseases. It is probably the single
greatest weapon that we have against avian influenza. But,
unfortunately, biosecurity is not consistently applied by all
farmers and by all poultry companies.
We also need to look at, as far as No. 2 is concerned, a
few aspects of our current emergency response plan so we can
respond more quickly, more rapidly, to an incident, and we can
get into that a little bit later.
No. 3, provide an insurance program for poultry farmers who
contract with poultry companies to raise their flocks. Dr.
Clifford mentioned indemnifications that have been paid, and
this is very important. But for farmers who are contract
farmers with poultry companies, they may or may not receive
those indemnifications. So, there is really a need for a new
program, and there are discussions underway on this particular
topic and I think we should look into this area seriously.
Vaccination for controlling avian influenza in poultry
requires very careful consideration. Again, there was mention
earlier about developing vaccines and utilizing them in
poultry, and I am talking more specifically not for humans, but
for poultry. But there are some limitations to vaccines.
Vaccines have limited efficacy, even under somewhat the best
conditions. We certainly need more research on poultry vaccines
to make them more effective than they currently are. But,
vaccination is a slippery slope and we need to very carefully
determine whether or not we are going to go down this road, the
effect on trade, the fact that these vaccines are not
particularly effective, can push the virus and drive it to
further mutations.
Last, there is a growing body of evidence that terrestrial
wild birds may be playing a role in the transmission of avian
influenza. We have known for years that ducks and geese, so-
called wild waterfowl, are the main reservoirs where avian
influenza resides on a long-term basis, and we have heard
earlier from Dr. Clifford they are the primary source for the
point introductions at various parts of the United States. We
have known this for years.
So, these terrestrial birds, why might they be important?
Well, there is some research that suggests that they do support
virus replication and they could be so-called bridge vectors,
carrying viruses not only to poultry--many times you see
finches and sparrows in poultry houses--but maybe also to
humans.
I would like to thank Senator Carper and Senator Johnson
for their kind invitation to be here today, and I also want to
thank Robert Bradley of Senator Carper's office for reaching
out to me about this opportunity. Thank you.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Professor Gelb.
Well, because Senator Carper got a witness from Delaware, I
got one from Wisconsin. And, it is unfortunate that we have
Scott Schneider here because you lost your flock and you are
losing a lot of money in this process.
Our next witness is Mr. Scott Schneider and he is the owner
of Nature Link Farm, located in Jefferson County, Wisconsin.
Unfortunately, his 200,000 chicken farm was the first egg-
laying operation to be hit by the H5N2 strain that then ravaged
other chicken farms across the Midwest. He is also the
President of the Wisconsin Poultry and Egg Industries
Association.
Mr. Schneider, we are very glad you could come here and
provide your testimony.
TESTIMONY OF SCOTT SCHNEIDER,\1\ OWNER, NATURE LINK FARM,
JEFFERSON, WISCONSIN, AND PRESIDENT, WISCONSIN POULTRY AND EGG
INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION
Mr. Schneider. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member
Carper, and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me
to discuss the impact of highly pathogenic avian influenza on
poultry and egg producers. I appreciate the opportunity to be a
part of developing a comprehensive solution to recover from the
current outbreak and prevent the future spread of the disease.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Schneider appears in the Appendix
on page 81.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
My farm is my livelihood. My flock of 200,000 cage-free
egg-laying hens did more than produce a product. It helped me
meet American consumer demand. My flock and my farm fed my
family, they paid my bills, and it enabled me to help my ten-
plus employees feed their families and pay their bills, too.
I have always played by the rules and tried to ensure
pristine conditions for my employees and for my birds. I have
done my part to keep the American egg industry competitive. But
as producers from around the world know all too well, hard work
and strictly following regulations does nothing to protect
against AI.
My flock of 200,000 egg-laying hens has been reduced to
zero in the face of the AI outbreak. My short-term prospects
have been grim, and the middle-and long-term prospects are
challenging, especially in the face of future AI threats.
Although containment and biosecurity efforts have been
admirable, survival of my family farm and the American egg
industry at large depends on meaningful protection against
future outbreaks.
AI will cost my farm a minimum of $500,000 in revenues
before this year is over. That is a sizable blow for any
operation, but almost an unimaginable financial hit for a
smaller producer such as myself. My farm will be completely out
of production for at least 4 months and generate no new
revenue. My current plans call for gradual repopulation over
the 4-months to follow, building my flock back toward its pre-
AI size. When all is said and done, under a best case scenario,
I am facing a minimum of 8 months with either zero or heavily
reduced revenues and surviving by using my life's savings.
In addition to the direct loss of revenue, I am also
fronting payments for some of the costs of remediation and
containment efforts until the USDA is able to reimburse me.
Of course, my farm is just one of the many operations
devastated by AI. To date, more than 48 million birds have been
infected by the disease and 220 operations in 20 different
States. AI has killed more birds in the egg sector than in any
other to this point.
The reported loss from the current outbreak has set egg-
layer inventories back by more than a decade. Prior to the
current outbreak of AI, there were just over 300 million egg-
laying hens in the United States. Over the past 6 months, about
35 million of those have been lost. That loss is hurting
American egg supplies and driving up prices, as indicated by
the USDA's 4.1 percent reduction of forecasted egg production
for 2015. It has even led to the importation of shell eggs from
Europe. This is an extreme situation that very seldom is seen
in our industry.
Consumers are also hurt. We have seen significant increases
in the prices of eggs and products made with dry and liquid
eggs due to the AI outbreak. In dollars and cents, current
table egg prices are up 70 percent from April 2015 prices. U.S.
consumers could pay $8 billion more to buy eggs, which is an
increase of at least 75 percent from last year.
The importance of USDA's response efforts to date cannot be
overstated, nor can my gratitude for the work that the
government and its partners have done thus far. USDA resources
have been integral to response efforts. What is more, the
individuals and teams that I have worked with on the ground
have been highly professional and courteous. They are people
who have the best intentions and a true desire to help, and I
appreciate that help very much.
Despite the progress being made, the sheer bureaucracy of
doing business with the government is challenging family
farmers who, like me, do not interact with government bodies
every day. I do not have administrative staff to keep up with
the changing landscape of rules, work plans, compliance
agreements, and the rotating staff inherent to such a recovery
process. The red tape is daunting, it is frustrating, and it is
financially draining. But, we must push on and work within the
framework that has been established for the benefit of me and
those like me.
In today's landscape, a response plan aimed at true
eradication of the disease must be comprehensive. Biosecurity
and containment are indispensable parts of that plan, but they
are simply not enough. We need to stop AI and prevent future
outbreaks. The fact that the USDA is considering use of a
vaccine as a component of a comprehensive response strategy is
encouraging. For producers like me, it is difficult to imagine
investing the time and money necessary to repopulate our flocks
without the assurance provided by an availability of an
effective vaccine.
This fact is made even truer in the face of upcoming bird
migrations this fall which threaten to reintroduce outbreaks
all over this country. Without the long-term protection granted
by an eradication approach with a targeted use of a safe and
tested vaccine, the path forward for my farm is far from clear.
I am proud to be an American egg producer. I am proud to be
a part of an industry that has done its part to feed our
Nation, to support thousands of jobs, and keep small towns
vibrant. If there is one message I hope this Committee takes
from my testimony, it is this. The threat of AI can take all
that away in one fell swoop if we fail to adopt a response plan
that both addresses the current outbreak and prevent future
outbreaks.
I thank you for your time and for the opportunity to talk
with you today and I look forward to answering your questions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Schneider.
I think I will start with you. I think your testimony--and
first of all, thank you for your testimony, and we obviously
are sorry for your loss. But, what I find interesting about
your testimony is I think you share my perspective. I have been
very impressed with the quality of the Federal workforce, I
mean, just really dedicated individuals doing a great job,
which is exactly what you experienced, as well, and that is a
good thing. But, frustrated by the problems that you encounter
based on the bureaucracy, the rules, what they are trying to
follow. So, I just kind of want to followup on that.
First of all, you are a contract producer, correct?
Somebody else owns the chickens and you run the operation.
Mr. Schneider. Yes, that is correct.
Chairman Johnson. Now, when we met yesterday--and I
appreciate you coming in early--you described to me the
indemnification process for the actual chicken owners. It took,
what, 4 to 6 weeks for them to be indemnified against the loss
of the chickens, correct?
Mr. Schneider. That is my understanding, yes.
Chairman Johnson. But, you are, as you say, there is no
business interruption insurance. You cannot buy this kind of
insurance in the open market. This is only provided--and it is
a good thing that we have this indemnification through the
USDA, but as Professor Gelb was talking about, there is a
problem in terms of indemnifying for operational losses as well
as trying to recover and doing what you are trying to do to
remake your farm, is that correct? Can you describe how much
you spent and what your frustration is in terms of being
indemnified as the operator?
Mr. Schneider. I think one of the situations that I am
running into is that I will be fronting probably close to
$150,000 in terms of depopulation, cleanup, and disinfecting
before I am able to start repopulating my complex. It is
difficult for me to come up with that kind of cash, and it is
difficult to try to make sure that I am dotting all the ``I''s
and crossing all the ``t''s when it comes to the formats that
the USDA is going to require me to do when it comes to expenses
and identifying which expenses are recoverable for me. Every
day goes by, I become a little bit more concerned that some of
those expenses might be left out or forgotten or somehow not
covered and I stand to lose a lot more money on top of what I
am already losing.
Chairman Johnson. And, again, if you are not able to
repopulate your operation for 8 months, I mean, are you going
to be able to start generating revenue any time soon, or is it
really you are not going to generate anything for 8 months?
Mr. Schneider. When I start repopulating, it will be an
incremental process. I have the capacity of 200,000 birds on my
farm and I will start incrementally adding flocks to the tune
of about 45,000 birds every month, starting in August and
October.
Chairman Johnson. Now, do you buy those as egg-laying
chickens right off the bat?
Mr. Schneider. They are ready to lay. Yes, that is correct.
Chairman Johnson. OK. So, you will start generating
revenue.
Mr. Schneider. That is correct.
Chairman Johnson. OK. Dr. Clifford, in the private
insurance market, you get an insurance adjustor coming out
onsite, assessing it, verifying the claim, writing a check
sometimes that day or within days, or certainly a week or two.
To me, this is a pretty simple claim to adjudicate,
particularly the chickens. I mean, here is the program. It is
Federal law that the chickens have to be destroyed, and it is
Federal law that the indemnification for those owners of those
chickens. I would think, OK, we verify that this is AI and the
chickens are destroyed, and I do not know why the government
cannot write a check literally within a day or two to
indemnify, first, the owners of the chickens. Can you tell me
why it would take 4 to 6 weeks for the owners of the chickens
to be indemnified?
Dr. Clifford. So, with regards to indemnification, we can
actually do that within a week or less.
Chairman Johnson. But, again, that was not the case in
this----
Dr. Clifford. No, I understand, sir.
Chairman Johnson. OK.
Dr. Clifford. What I was going to say, though, is what we
require is a flock plan to be signed, and until that flock plan
is signed, we do not pay indemnity. What the flock plan is, is
a strategy and plan for that location, specific to that
location, with regards to biosecurity and restocking to ensure
that we are all doing as much as we can to prevent reinfection.
If there is not a signed flock plan before we pay indemnity and
they get reinfected after they repopulate, we do not pay
indemnity a second time.
So, I think there are things that we can do together to
make that a lot quicker process. My heart goes out to Scott and
his issues, and we have heard this from many producers. Some of
these things are complex because they have never dealt with
them.
So, one of the things that we are doing to combat this in
the future is assigning one person to that facility from the
beginning to the end to work with the producer and to help them
get through these things.
Chairman Johnson. OK. So, you are learning from that.
Mr. Schneider, real quick, how long did it take USDA to get
out to your operation to inspect and really order the
destruction of the flock?
Mr. Schneider. I think the USDA needs to wait until the
presumptive positive is actually confirmed by the national
laboratory in Iowa before they are able to do anything. And so
in my case, we had a presumptive positive, I think it was on
maybe a Thursday of the week, and on Saturday evening, it was
confirmed by the national laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and I think
it was on that Monday, then, that we had USDA people----
Chairman Johnson. And how quickly was your flock destroyed?
Mr. Schneider. It took a little----
Chairman Johnson. So, Thursday, infected.
Mr. Schneider. Yes.
Chairman Johnson. I mean, you saw chickens dying, right?
Mr. Schneider. Right. They were.
Chairman Johnson. They died quickly. And then, so, that was
Thursday, and you started destroying your flock when?
Mr. Schneider. It was probably the following Thursday or
Friday, possibly.
Chairman Johnson. So, Professor Gelb, in your testimony,
you said that process should be 24 hours. That is a pretty big
gap. There is a fair amount of continuous improvement required
here, correct?
Dr. Gelb. Yes, ideally. In Delaware back in 2004, our goal
was 24 to 48 hours, in that window. And, in fact, again, that
hinges on the identification of the virus. If we go back to
Scott's point, that is a very important one, the process. The
presumptive positive is made by a local or regional laboratory,
a National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) member
laboratory--that is a mouthful, but it is a USDA, very
important, very highly regarded USDA laboratory network system
that we have nationally. They are based in Ames, Iowa. The
confirmation must come--this is a very important point--from
the national laboratory in Ames before it is actually a done
deal, so to speak.
Chairman Johnson. So, let me just say, so in the current
structure, we have these sites. Best case, if you restructured
the process, I mean, because sometimes tests take a while.
Dr. Gelb. Sure.
Chairman Johnson. Sometimes they have to incubate. What is
best case? If you could design the structure, what is the best
case in terms of Mr. Schneider calling somebody, you collect a
sample. How quickly could you have that confirmed, again, best
case, not--I guess, with current structure, but if you really
redesigned this thing.
Dr. Gelb. Yes. Once the samples are submitted to the local-
regional NAHLN laboratory, those results basically are
molecular types of tests. They can be completed in about 3
hours. Then those same samples, it is mandated, must be sent to
the central lab in Ames for testing and for confirmational
testing. So, at the local lab, they are presumptive. We are
really waiting for that confirmational testing.
So, frequently, they are going to be sent by overnight
delivery, OK, so it might be another 24 hours. So, you are
basically waiting, then, that additional 24 hours before you
can take action in terms of initiating flock depopulation.
Chairman Johnson. I want to say on this, and I want my
Committee members to indulge me a little bit, in your
experience--or maybe I will go to Dr. Clifford--how often do
you have the initial result differ from the confirmation
result? Are there instances of that? So, in other words, the
question I am asking is could we rely on the initial result,
and it would be destroying the flock of chickens, and all of
the sudden, oh, that really was not avian flu?
Dr. Gelb. These regional NAHLN laboratories are basically
laboratories of the NAHLN. They are many times, if not all,
many times accredited laboratories with very high quality
staff. I am giving you a little more background. All the
members that run these molecular tests take proficiency panels
once a year, unknown proficiency panels that come from USDA. We
are talking about highly qualified laboratories.
Chairman Johnson. So, again, so the point is, we could
improve this model, so we could destroy that flock of chickens
within a day or two, within your guidelines, 24 to 48 hours
rather than 7 days, which, again, just increases the likelihood
that these outbreaks will not be contained.
Dr. Gelb. Yes.
Chairman Johnson. I mean, from my standpoint, for the USDA,
if we have to write a law or improve a regulation, there is a
real top priority of what we ought to do as a Federal
Government to speed that process to limit the damage. I mean,
would you agree with that, or----
Dr. Gelb. Yes, I would.
Chairman Johnson. OK. I have plenty of other questions, but
I will turn it over to Senator Carper.
Senator Carper. To our witnesses, you will see our
colleagues are coming and going. We serve on three, four, five
Committees, and the others have hearings going on, as well. I
do, and I will be slipping in and out today.
Senator Tester from Montana has asked to use a little bit
of my time and I am going to yield to him and then recover my
time. Thank you.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR TESTER
Senator Tester. I appreciate that.
Very quickly, Dr. Clifford, is there a vaccine for the
avian flu?
Dr. Clifford. Yes, sir, there is a vaccine----
Senator Tester. OK. How cost effective is it? What does it
cost a bird?
Dr. Clifford. Well, let me, if I may, there is not a well-
matched vaccine available today----
Senator Tester. OK, so there is not a----
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. And we are working on well-
matched vaccines for the fall.
Senator Tester. All right.
Dr. Clifford. But, you are usually talking pennies per
bird----
Senator Tester. OK.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. As far as the cost of vaccine.
Senator Tester. All right. But, we are still researching
the potential of a matched vaccine?
Dr. Clifford. There is work ongoing, and I believe that we
will have----
Senator Tester. One by fall.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. Available vaccines by the fall
or late fall.
Senator Tester. Mr. Schneider, first of all, thanks for
raising cage-free chickens, No. 1, and No. 2, I am sorry about
your loss. I am also involved in agriculture of a different
kind. I deal with plants. But, I just kind of want to try to
figure out where we are going here. With grains and with
lentils, we buy insurance. Do you pay a premium for the
insurance we are talking about, or is this part of a disaster
program of the USDA?
Mr. Schneider. This is part of the disaster program of
USDA.
Senator Tester. OK. That is important to know. I mean, we
buy insurance, that is heavily subsidized, I might add, by the
taxpayer, so it is not totally private sector.
What are you going to have to do to be able to raise
chickens? Can you give me four or five things that you are
going to have to do on your place so that you can guarantee
that the avian flu is not going to come back?
Mr. Schneider. Sure. We have to follow protocols set in
place by the USDA----
Senator Tester. Yes.
Mr. Schneider [continuing]. For depopulating, for cleaning,
and then, finally, for disinfecting.
Senator Tester. OK. And, is there other time elements to
those protocols?
Mr. Schneider. Not necessarily, up until the time which you
are completed with your disinfecting. Then you are required for
a 21-day rest period----
Senator Tester. OK.
Mr. Schneider [continuing]. In which time they are doing
sampling----
Senator Tester. And they are still continuing to do tests
to make sure that----
Mr. Schneider. They are doing testing during that 21-day
period.
Senator Tester. OK. Very good. And, you are in the middle
of that process right now?
Mr. Schneider. I am completing the disinfecting, hopefully
this week.
Senator Tester. And, is it up to you to destroy the
chickens or does USDA do it?
Mr. Schneider. It is a reimbursable expense.
Senator Tester. Yes, but do you actually do the job or do
USDA people come in and do it?
Mr. Schneider. It depends on whether or not there is a
contracted company to come in and do it, or we can as a farm.
We can contract to do it, as well.
Senator Tester. In your particular case----
Mr. Schneider. We assisted the contracted company.
Senator Tester. OK. Good.
Mr. Currie, in your written testimony, you talked a little
bit about foot and mouth disease, and I know this is about
avian flu, but how serious is foot and mouth?
Mr. Currie. It is a very serious disease.
Senator Tester. And we are free of that disease in this
country, correct?
Mr. Currie. That is probably a question better targeted to
Mr. Clifford, but----
Senator Tester. That is good. He is next on my list anyway.
[Laughter.]
We are free in this country of foot in mouth----
Dr. Clifford. Yes, sir, we are.
Senator Tester. OK. The USDA just opened up--authorized
imports from a number of countries, including Brazil, Uruguay,
Argentina----
Dr. Clifford. Yes, sir.
Senator Tester [continuing]. That are not foot and mouth
free countries. Mr. Currie just said it was a very serious
disease. Do you guys talk before you open up trade with other
countries that have a highly contagious disease?
Dr. Clifford. Do I talk with GAO about doing that?
Senator Tester. Do you talk with Mr. Currie's office?
Dr. Clifford. No.
Senator Tester. OK. So, if that----
Dr. Clifford. Why would I talk to Mr. Currie's office about
disease mitigation? They are not veterinarians. We do risk
assessments.
Senator Tester. OK, so that is fine. My brother is a
veterinarian, so do not take this personally, but----
Dr. Clifford. I know he is. [Laughter.]
Senator Tester. The fact is, is that why did we open up
trade with countries that have foot and mouth disease?
Dr. Clifford. Because they are free with vaccination, and
what that means is they have not had cases, an active outbreak
of foot and mouth disease for years.
Senator Tester. In regions of those countries----
Dr. Clifford. No, in all of the----
Senator Tester [continuing]. Not in those entire----
Dr. Clifford. In the entire country, there has not been a
verified case of foot and mouth disease in the entire South
America for over 2 years.
Senator Tester. So, why is not Uruguay considered a
certified free foot and mouth disease?
Dr. Clifford. They still vaccinate. That is why. And, you
can ship beef, boneless beef, safely if you vaccinate and you
are free, and we have been doing that for years. We did it from
Argentina years before they had an additional case quite a few
years ago.
Senator Tester. So, let us go the other direction, then.
You are saying that if we had an instance of foot and mouth
disease in this country, that it would not hurt our export
business?
Dr. Clifford. I did not say that, sir. Of course, it would.
Senator Tester. We vaccinate.
Dr. Clifford. We base trade on risk mitigation. We do not
vaccinate for foot and mouth disease, nor will we vaccinate for
foot and mouth disease unless we get the disease. They
vaccinate routinely to make sure that they do not have the
disease. One of these days----
Senator Tester. I have it.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. I think North America will
probably--or, the region of Americas will probably be the first
continent free of foot and mouth disease within the next 5 to
10 years.
Senator Tester. That would be good. My concern is it stays
that way, and from what I hear you say, if we had foot and
mouth disease in this country and we were vaccinating, we would
actually be in better shape for exports of meat than if we did
not have foot and mouth disease and we did not vaccinate.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. That is not correct.
Senator Tester. Well, now, come on----
Dr. Clifford. I said boneless beef--boneless--from areas of
the world that have foot and mouth.
Senator Tester. Got you.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. Free with vaccination can ship
boneless beef----
Senator Tester. Here is my concern, and you are the doctor
and I just raise the animals. My concern is, is what happens if
we get foot and mouth disease in this country, and you said it
would have impacts on our exports.
Dr. Clifford. It would.
Senator Tester. But, you also believe strongly that the
chance of transferring that foot and mouth disease from a
country like Uruguay is zero.
Dr. Clifford. I did not say it was zero. I said it was
extremely low risk.
Senator Tester. What would it be, less than 10 percent?
Dr. Clifford. Oh, it is a lot lower than that, but it is--
--
Senator Tester. Less than 1 percent?
Dr. Clifford. Yes.
Senator Tester. OK. So, nearly zero.
Dr. Clifford. As close to zero as you can get without
saying zero.
Senator Tester. Perfect. Thank you very much.
Chairman Johnson. Senator Ernst.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ERNST
Senator Ernst. Thank you, Chairman Johnson and Ranking
Member Carper, and to our witnesses today, thanks so much.
I spent some time with Dr. Clifford yesterday as we met in
the Agriculture Committee and discussed a number of these
issues, as well. I do want to recognize, we do have a turkey
producer from Iowa in our audience today. Mr. Moline, thanks
for joining us again today. Good to have you here.
Iowa was hit extremely hard. If you look, a number of us
here up at the dais have a little map here, and you cannot
really see Iowa too well because out of the millions and
millions of birds that have been infected and destroyed, two-
thirds of those birds were from Iowa. So, our poultry, our
turkeys, have been infected quite heavily, and so this has been
a big concern for us for a number of months now. And, the
economic impact to Iowa will be about $1 billion, very
significant.
So, Mr. Schneider, I sympathize with you very much. A
number of our producers have gone through the exact same thing.
I just want to reemphasize, it is not only devastating for
these producers, but their employees, those employees'
families, and the communities that are supported by these
producers. So, thank you for being here today and sharing your
story. I appreciate that very much.
Dr. Clifford, I would like to go back and visit a little
bit more about the vaccination process. We talked about it a
little bit yesterday. Is the USDA working on the vaccination
process? If you could explain a little bit about the process,
where we are with that. I know a number of different groups
will support vaccinations, some will not. What we want to do is
ensure that we are working with trade partners, as well. So, if
you could talk about our trade partners, that would be very
helpful.
Dr. Clifford. Thank you, Senator Ernst. Yes, what we are
doing is developing, actually, a vaccine bank. We intend to go
out with a request for proposal soon to ask companies to bid on
that. We have several companies that are in process of
developing vaccines and we believe that we will have a vaccine
bank available sometime this fall, it may be late fall
depending upon the companies' ability to get that vaccine
manufactured.
It is a tool in the toolbox, as Dr. Gelb said, that we
really need to have to use if we decide it is the right thing
to do in a particular situation. So, we are working on those
protocols and then we will be reaching out this summer to our
trading partners to try to encourage our trading partners,
under these conditions, to not shut off trade. And, if we are
successful, then that will help us to be able to utilize that
one tool, because right now, if we use that tool in our
toolbox, they will shut us off and we will lose potentially up
to $3 or $4 billion additionally in trade. And, they are not
talking about a partial shut-off. They are talking about an
entire country shut-off.
So, I understand the turkey producers wanting to use
vaccines. I can understand the layers and especially outdoor or
cage-free birds. So, you have these different groups, from the
broilers to the genetics groups that do not want it used
because of the impact on trade. So, we are trying to balance
all this. We are trying to get our trading partners to support
its use in a limited way where it makes sense.
An example of use would be in turkey flocks in Minnesota
that have a very close proximity to a lot of lakes and a lot of
potential wild waterfowl.
Senator Ernst. Very good. No, I appreciate that very much.
And, Dr. Gelb, you had mentioned that, of course, the
growers, there is an indemnity fund, but some of the growers
are not seeing the funds flowing their direction. Do you know
of any mechanism where we would be able to follow those dollars
and find out--we do want to make sure that if the growers are
entitled to a portion of that indemnity payment, that they are
receiving that. Do you know of any mechanism that we might be
able to engage for followup?
Dr. Gelb. Yes. This is a little bit out of my area, but
working with our local trade association, the Delmarva Poultry
Industry, Incorporated, and speaking with William Satterfield,
the Director of that organization, I think he, for example,
could give you a better answer on this.
But, my understanding, as I indicated earlier, the
indemnities for contract growers--and there are many contract
growers in this country where they do not own the birds. They
provide the facilities, the heat, the ventilation, basically,
to grow them. But, the birds themselves belong to a poultry
company. And, frequently, those indemnities, they just go to
the poultry company. Some of the companies will then share some
of the indemnity funds with the contract grower.
So, this is kind of a contract grower issue, and I
mentioned, also, the interest and current proceedings now in
thinking about moving forward with an insurance program that
growers could purchase where those funds would go directly to
them rather than to the company. So, yes, Senator, you bring up
an excellent question, and I am not sure I am really the best
one to address it.
Senator Ernst. Thank you.
Dr. Gelb. Thank you.
Senator Ernst. Well, I thank you for raising the issue.
And, just one parting point, and I know, Mr. Currie, you
work with emergency management, and as we discussed yesterday
in the Agriculture Committee, Iowa did have plans in place
should this happen. We had a number of landfills that were
willing to accept the carcasses of the birds after they were
virus-free. But, I tell you, even the best laid plans can go
awry, because we had really kind of an uprising amongst the
people around those landfills and along those routes that said,
how do we know that our birds will not be hit by this virus by
moving those birds to these landfills? So, it was a great
concern with the people of Iowa that we were not affecting
additional farms out there. So, even the best laid plans cannot
go the way they are intended.
But, thank you very much to our panel for being here today.
We appreciate it. Thank you, Chairman and Ranking Member.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Senator Ernst. Senator Peters.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PETERS
Senator Peters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to
the panelists for your testimony.
This is certainly an issue that is somewhat frightening to
a lot of folks, to think that an influenza could hit the
poultry industry so quickly, and that so many birds die and
have such a massive impact on egg production, and we just think
about, certainly, other produce as well, and how these bio
threats are so significant.
In fact, Michigan, the State that I am blessed to
represent, became the 21st State to confirm a case of avian flu
here just recently. I believe it was in wild birds, actually,
some geese where it showed up, and I think that is possibly
where it all started. I think we are still trying to figure
that out.
But, I guess that leads to my question for you, Dr.
Clifford. How closely are you working with the Fish and
Wildlife Service? Are they involved in monitoring what is
happening with wild birds and the impact it could have on our
agricultural sector? Certainly, we will have fall migrations
that will be involved with some of these wild birds. So, do you
work with the Fish and Wildlife Service, and if so, what are
you doing?
Dr. Clifford. Yes, sir, we do. We work directly with them.
Our Wildlife Services Division of APHIS leads this effort for
us and they work directly with the State Departments of Natural
Resources (DNR), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other
entities with regards to wild bird surveillance.
We have actually been doing wild bird surveillance for a
long time. We began doing a lot more surveillance during the
H5N1 occurrence quite a few years ago in Asia, when it became a
human health issue and concern, as well, and we increased our
surveillance. As that became less of a concern for the United
States from the flyways--and we did a lot of testing and
monitoring and no cases were found of that H5N1--then we
reduced the level of monitoring because of the lack of threat
from that particular agent.
Based upon these recent findings, we have increased
surveillance in wild birds and we actually have plans out there
available that includes Fish and Wildlife, DNRs, and APHIS
Wildlife Services on the collection of these samples, and it
will occur across all four flyways. In addition, we take
samples from up north of Alaska, there in the Bering Strait
area where these birds currently are to see what is happening
right now, today.
Senator Peters. Very good. Well, as I looked at the spread
of this and looked at the industry and the concentration of the
industry, which I think is very interesting I want to direct
this question to Dr. Schuchat, probably Dr. Clifford, as well,
and Dr. Gelb. The statistic that I think is very interesting is
that there are 56 privately held farms that account for about
90 percent of all of the egg production in the United States--
90 percent. So, we have some small family farms, but there are
not very many small family farms anymore. That has faded away.
We have large family farms and we have large corporate farms.
And now we have just 56 farms that have 90 percent of the
production. So, that is an incredible concentration of animals.
So, I want to kind of get your sense. We have a very large
amount of birds in a very small space, and this is not just in
poultry, it is in other types of agricultural production, as
well. Does that put us at greater risk when it comes to
disease, because you have that kind of concentration, or does
it not? If you could kind of address that for me as far as what
we are looking at in terms of our challenges.
Dr. Schuchat. Yes, I can just briefly comment from the
human health perspective, but I think Dr. Clifford will be
better. We need biosecurity to be strong at every level, and
one level is really what is the geographic location of the
establishments. But we need within any establishment,
concentrated or not, the right kind of procedures and protocols
and the workforce practicing those, because there is risk of
spread between the facilities.
So, the specifics of the agricultural practices would be in
the USDA arena. What I need to just say is that the workers on
those premises and the contractors and so forth who help with
remediation really need to be tracked to make sure that they
are OK following their exposures and that they do not develop
illness that could be a human case of avian influenza.
Dr. Clifford. So, with regards to issues of whether you
have intensive farming practices or less so, this virus really
does not care. Granted, the more birds you have in a location,
the more virus production, the wider the spread can occur.
What we need to be thinking about in the way of biosecurity
is why this outbreak is different than what we have seen
before. This is the first time in North America that we have
had a high path AI virus travel through wild birds from Europe
and Asia to North America, the first time, and it is because it
has adapted itself to these dabbling ducks and it has moved
across the Bering Strait. It never happened before in a high
path. Low path, maybe, but not high path.
So, what is different now is we have to consider
biosecurity, where it was fine and well and good for what we
were dealing with prior to this, we have to consider now that
this is different. You have to look where there are wild
waterfowl as the entire environment being affected,
potentially. It does not mean it is, but you have to consider
that as a potential. Every single house that birds exist in, or
every single location, you have to think in ways of trying to
protect from house to house to house. And it is not about the
facility being safe, it is only the safety within each of those
houses where those birds are kept, and they have to be looked
at as single biosecurity facilities, which is much different
than what we have had to do prior.
Senator Peters. So, it is better to have a few large
concentrations or more----
Dr. Clifford. It is really more about the biosecurity. But,
obviously, in any viral infection, the more birds you have, the
easier the virus can spread, the more virus production. That is
why it is critically important to get birds put down quickly.
Senator Peters. Right, especially when you have 56
operations that are 90 percent of all the eggs in America.
Dr. Clifford. These are highly integrated----
Senator Peters. Yes.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. Operations.
Senator Peters. Dr. Gelb, do you want to mention----
Dr. Gelb. Yes. I will kind of answer this from the broiler
or the meat-type chicken perspective in Delaware, where, as
Senator Carper indicated, it was the birthplace of the modern
broiler or meat-type industry in the United States. It has
continued to be very productive there and we often brag about
the efficiency of our poultry production in Delaware and
Delmarva.
But, this concept of having highly density of poultry
within a given house, but even more importantly the density of
farms in that area, that does facilitate the potential for more
rapid transmission. We are dealing with a very contagious
virus. We are dealing with a situation where the ventilation
fans that are used to maintain the proper environment of the
chickens are turned on virtually all the time, and material--
dust, other material that is coming out of the air of those
barns--will have virus.
And, that virus will travel to some degree, not miles and
miles, but in Delaware, within a one square mile area, we might
have four or five farms, and each of those farms might have
60,000 to 80,000 chickens on them. They are all contract
growers. They may be--and those contracts are probably with--
there are four different integrated operations, four different
companies.
So, you have a situation, as Dr. Clifford indicated, where
you may have these very large single farms, layer operations,
for example, but on some other areas of the country, you have
independent facilities owned by different companies, but it is
essentially the same thing. Even though maybe the travel on and
off those particular farms is different, when birds are taken
to market, they are caught, they are put in cages, those trucks
take them to what we call processing plants or slaughterhouses,
and they may go by 15 different other farms. And, the dust and
the feathers are coming from these live haul trucks, as they
are called.
So, there are a lot of complexities here and we really need
to kind of think this all through. That is why in Delaware, we
are--``concerned'' is not the right word, thinking about what
might happen here this fall.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Senator Peters.
A real quick point of clarification for Dr. Clifford. There
may be 56 poultry companies, but there are a lot of locations,
right?
Dr. Clifford. Sure. I mean, there are 20 States that we
would consider to be major poultry producing States across the
United States.
Chairman Johnson. So, we are not talking about 56
locations. We are talking about probably thousands of
locations, correct?
Dr. Clifford. Correct.
Chairman Johnson. But, just multiple----
Dr. Clifford. But, there are areas across the country where
there are higher concentrations than others.
Chairman Johnson. Right. Got you. Great. Senator Baldwin.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BALDWIN
Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
This year's avian flu outbreak has had a deep impact in my
home State of Wisconsin. The outbreak has wreaked havoc on our
farms, where producers have faced the devastating reality of
sick and dying birds, I am so pleased that we are joined today
by
Mr. Schneider of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, to share his story of
his farm and livelihood.
The impacts, as we have discussed, of avian flu are really
broad on farm workers, on individuals working at processing and
packing plants whose jobs depend on those lines running, as
well as on the broader farm community, which depends upon
demand for grain, supplies and services from our poultry
growers. And, so, this avian flu crisis is also a community
crisis.
Wisconsin is proud to play a role as host to research labs
that are laser focused on the key questions that are in front
of
us--questions about how the virus mutates, how it is harbored
in wild birds, as well as diagnostic labs that help us track
its spread and track viral strains as they emerge.
Dr. Clifford, producers in my State have relied on the
tireless work that you do, and your team has put in lots of
time and energy into addressing this crisis over the past many
months. I want to thank you for your leadership.
We know that research labs responding to this virus span
several different Federal agencies and are supported, by State
labs. Madison, Wisconsin is home to the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) National Wildlife Health Center and conducts research to
determine which wild bird species might carry and spread
various viral strains. I want to note parenthetically that I am
quite concerned that the lab's aging infrastructure is not
allowing it to fully perform as needed during this crisis. This
is something that I have paid great attention to.
Dr. Clifford, as you know, this Wildlife Health Center
conducts research that supports the industry focused research
at USDA. I am wondering if you could share some general
comments about the importance of interagency collaboration and
research investments as well as coordination to address this
crisis.
Dr. Clifford. I think interagency, across agencies, across
States and the industry, the collaboration across all of them
is extremely important. I think that was well stated earlier by
the testimony of Chris Currie with regards to the importance of
collaboration.
We actually collaborate on an ongoing basis with CDC. We
work very closely with USGS. We work very closely with the
Department of Interior as a whole. The money and funding we
provide for the wild bird surveillance, some of that money
would go to help support that testing that USGS and others
would be doing in collection and testing of those samples. We
work with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the DHS, the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), I mean, a whole host of--
Food Safety Inspection Service within our own agency. We have
an internal MAC group within the Department of Agriculture that
is stood up that brings across all the agencies to help address
this issue, as well as with the State agencies.
So, it is critically important that all this is
coordinated. As Senator Ernst was talking about with the
landfills, there are issues with the Envirionmental Protection
Agency (EPA). There are issues with transportation. There are
issues with a lot of these things that have to be coordinated
across.
There could be issues with availability of water. These
foamers that we use for depopulation of birds requires a water
source for foaming. You would not think that you would run out
of water in certain areas. Certainly in small rural areas, you
very well may not have an effective water source. You cannot go
take it out of the lake because it has to be filtered water or
otherwise it shuts down your machines. You have to have carbon
sources for composting and things. So, this really is a massive
effort that requires coordination among a lot.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Dr. Clifford.
Dr. Schuchat, the University of Wisconsin hosts a large
team of researchers studying pathogens that endanger human,
animal, and plant health. We have pioneers in developing
research efforts that could potentially help us understand or
treat avian influenza viruses.
However, some of these efforts have been put on hold by a
Federal pause on gain of function research. This continued
research pause is delaying the potential benefits of studying
these viruses, including research that could protect human,
animal and economic health. When does the CDC plan to issue
final guidance on this research to be able to end the pause?
Dr. Schuchat. Yes. I will need to get back with you with
the specifics on that, but what I would like to say is that the
public safety is really important, and public support for
research is very important, and we take very seriously the need
to make sure that the scientific experiments that CDC or
research partners are doing are done in the safest possible
way.
Influenza virus research is critical to make sure that we
have safe treatments and effective vaccines and really get
ahead of these viruses before we get the kind of problem that
we are seeing right now with the avian outbreaks here. And, so,
I know that across government, with the National Institutes of
Health (NIH), CDC, FDA, the question of the moratorium is
important and we can get back with you with the specifics of
timing.
Senator Baldwin. I would appreciate that.
Dr. Clifford, I understand that State veterinarians are
considering restrictions on the movement of birds and poultry
separate from guidance by the USDA. I know that I have heard
from farmers in my State who have contracts to deliver birds
across State lines. We all clearly share the common goal of
containing and eradicating this viral outbreak, but our
producers facing substantial economic strain. These
uncertainties make things even more difficult to conduct
business when it is safe to do so.
Dr. Clifford, what steps is the USDA taking to ensure that
quarantine and shipping practices are safe and effective while
also facilitating these contracts and ongoing commerce?
Dr. Clifford. Thank you, Senator. So, within our approach,
we have what we call an infected zone and then a control zone.
The control zone is around an infected flock. It goes out 10
kilometers.
Basically, products that are negative in that area are
tested regularly, and so nothing can move out of those zones
unless we permit that product to move. And, there are regular
testing requirements for those products within that to be able
to be safely moved in and out of those zones. So, that occurs
ongoing. We issue, actually, thousands of permits out of those
zones to allow that safe movement.
We share that. We have weekly calls with the industry and
the States across the entire United States and we explain these
things to them. They know how it is happening. Some States have
taken additional action because of concern, for example,
because of the live bird marketing systems that we have in the
United States, and some of those have caused some issues. We
intervene on behalf of States such as Wisconsin, Iowa,
Minnesota, in that area, to try to help facilitate the movement
of those birds into those States and we do the best we can.
But, as you know, the States do have oftentimes rights to go
above and beyond our requirements, and so we try to work
through that with the industry.
Chairman Johnson. Senator Carper.
Senator Carper. Thanks so much. This is a great hearing and
we really appreciate your being here and your participation.
I want to come back and revisit the issue of, I will call
it crop insurance. We have had a crop insurance program in this
country for a long time and it is a shared partnership between
the Federal Government, which helps subsidize the crop
insurance. We changed it in the farm bill, the last farm bill
we passed here. We changed it up some so that it would cover,
as I am sure Mr. Clifford remembers, it would cover, I think,
fruits and vegetables, if farmers want to participate in that.
And Senator Coons, my colleague from Delaware, I think,
offered an amendment adopted and included in the bill that
called for maybe trying a demonstration program with respect to
insurance for poultry growers and other livestock growers. That
was in the bill. I think we adopted it maybe a year or so ago
and I do not know if we have had enough time to actually get it
up and running. Is that something you are at all familiar with?
Dr. Clifford. Senator, I am aware of the discussions, but I
am not involved in the specifics of those. That is kind of
outside of my range of areas of responsibility.
Senator Carper. OK. Well, I will just ask you for the
record. We will just ask you to respond for the record. Maybe
some of your colleagues there can give us an update to let us
know how it is going.
Dr. Clifford. OK.
Senator Carper. And, as Dr. Gelb was saying, in our
experience with contract growers and broilers on the Delmarva
Peninsula is if there is an avian influenza outbreak, the
chickens are owned by the integrators and the Perdues,
Mountaires, and companies like that, and the contractors, they
do not get indemnified, as far as I know. But, they have, as
Mr. Schneider has said, some real costs to bear.
And, I want to go back to something you said, Mr.
Schneider, and I will bounce it over to Mr. Clifford. You were
very gracious in your comments about the support you have
gotten from, we will say, the Federal Government, the
Department of Agriculture and others, and we were very
encouraged to hear that. You indicated there is a lot of
bureaucracy, a lot of red tape, and it can be very frustrating,
time consuming.
I thought I heard you say, Mr. Clifford, that there is an
effort to try to identify one person, like a go-to person, for
Mr. Schneider or anybody else who might be affected, whether it
is in Minnesota or Iowa or Wisconsin or Delaware. Is that
something we are actually doing now, where we have, like, one
designated person, so you do not, like, call a call center and
get switched from person to person to person? Do we have that
in effect now, because that sounds like a great idea.
Dr. Clifford. It is actually in effect, but not in the way
that we want it to be finalized for the fall and spring. Right
now, it is one person, but because of our rotations of
personnel in and out of those areas, because most of these
people come from different parts of the United States and we
have them on a 3-or 4-week rotation so they can go back home
for a period of time before they are redeployed, so----
Senator Carper. OK. It would be great if we could figure
out----
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. Right now, it is, like, a 3-or
4-week turnaround, so----
Senator Carper. I understand.
Dr. Clifford. So for the fall----
Senator Carper. Yes.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. What we are doing for the fall
and spring migrations is we will assign a single person that
will stay with that producer for the entire period.
Senator Carper. Great. One of my favorite sayings, if it is
not perfect, make it better----
Dr. Clifford. Yes, sir.
Senator Carper [continuing]. And I think you have taken a
good idea and made it better.
I would like to ask a question about lessons learned. This
would be for Dr. Gelb. Is it Dr. Clifford or Mr. Clifford?
Dr. Clifford. It is Dr. Clifford----
Senator Carper. Dr. Clifford, OK.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. But it is OK either way.
Senator Carper. We have a lot of doctors up here. But, I
want to ask, can each of you take a minute, Dr. Gelb, Dr.
Clifford, and Mr. Schneider--I will call you Dr. Schneider,
too----
Mr. Schneider. I have been called worse.
Senator Carper. I am sure. [Laughter.]
So have we. [Laughter.]
But, would the three of you just take a minute and share
with us maybe one key lesson that we have learned, that you
have learned so far from this outbreak, that can better prepare
us for further infections, should they occur later this year?
And, Jack, would you go first.
Dr. Gelb. Senator, thank you. I have not had any direct
experiences in this current outbreak, so we have had some
people, experts from the University of Delaware travel and
participate in depopulation efforts, because that happens to be
one of our real strengths, that we helped develop that
technology years ago. So, I get stories and reports from other
individuals.
So, I really feel that biosecurity is really a key issue. I
think that has been repeated several times today, an area
that--biosecurity is not sexy. It is not something that is
easily accomplished. It is a challenge and you sometimes do not
see results from it. But, certainly, we know it is not the
entire answer, as Mr. Schneider indicated. You can do
biosecurity, almost everything right, really, and sometimes it
is, maybe it is an act of God if you have the introduction of
the virus here. But, I still think biosecurity is a really key
weapon in this process.
Senator Carper. OK. Thanks. Dr. Clifford.
Dr. Clifford. Senator, if I may expand on that for more
than one--I would like to hit a few, if I may.
Senator Carper. Yes. Just do it quickly, please.
Dr. Clifford. Yes. First and foremost, the questions that
Senator Johnson, the Chairman, was asking earlier about the
timeframe of depopulation due to positive testing at our
National Veterinary Services lab, the confirmatory testing, we
have already implemented plans quite a while ago to base the
depopulation of those birds on presumptive positives by the
NAHLN laboratory where it was taken. So, we do not require
confirmation anymore. So, that is one lesson learned----
Senator Carper. OK.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. And one action we have taken.
In addition, one of the things we will be looking at in the
future is clinical signs where we already know we have virus in
the area, not even waiting necessarily on a presumptive
positive.
On the area of disposal, we need State, local plans in
place that we know will work before they occur. Biosecurity, it
is based upon new biosecurity. Air filtration systems--these
air handling systems in these facilities have to have some type
of filtration to reduce the amount of dust and potential for
virus particles to enter through the ventilation system itself.
Those are just some, but there are others.
Senator Carper. Good. Thanks.
Mr. Schneider, just very briefly. Give us one good take-
away, one lesson learned that you think we ought to share with
the country.
Mr. Schneider. Well, in addition to all the biosecurity
efforts----
Senator Carper. Yes.
Mr. Schneider [continuing]. We have just been talking
about, I would suggest that the increase of funding for
Agricultural Research Service to identify areas that those
specific biosecurity protocols need to be implemented to help
us prevent this from happening again would be a wonderful place
to start.
Senator Carper. OK, good. My time has expired. I hope we
will have a chance to ask a few more. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you all.
Chairman Johnson. You will.
Mr. Clifford, real quick, because I want to get into the
insurance or the emergency funding. Is there a program in place
to indemnify Mr. Schneider as an operator?
Dr. Clifford. There is a program in place that pays right
now for the owner of the birds. So, if Mr. Schneider is a
contract grower, what we have been doing is working with the
companies to make sure that payments do go to the contract
growers or contract raisers. I am not sure----
Chairman Johnson. OK. That is something you try and do
working with a law that does not contemplate indemnifying the
operator.
Dr. Clifford. Well, actually, sir, what we did in the low
path AI situation quite a few years ago in Virginia, it is part
of our regulations on low path. It requires the contract
growers to be paid. The problem is with this particular high
path, that particular regulation is written into the AI rules
for low path, not for high path. And, so, we paid the owner of
the birds.
Chairman Johnson. Correct. So, Mr. Schneider, you have a
problem there and we need to work with the Ranking Member to
figure out what we need to do to address that, because that is,
obviously, devastating for the operator when it is just the
owner being paid, and maybe there is an agreement between the
owner versus the operator, but that is something that needs to
be addressed.
Dr. Clifford, you talked about personnel rotation. How many
USDA offices do we have around the country?
Dr. Clifford. Veterinary Services offices or USDA offices?
Chairman Johnson. I mean, where you have qualified
personnel to respond to this----
Dr. Clifford. Well----
Chairman Johnson [continuing]. Because I am surprised we
are rotating personnel versus just having----
Dr. Clifford. We do not have that many trained people to do
this. You are talking about animal health technicians and
veterinary medical officers. I have about 1,800 people that
serve in veterinary services. I am not talking about just any
USDA person.
Chairman Johnson. But, again, if you are talking about a
point person to manage a case, I mean, you really need somebody
who is skilled in management, not necessarily in the hard
sciences.
Dr. Clifford. No, sir. They need to understand the science
as well. In this case, when they are working with them and
helping them develop a flock plan and a compliance agreement,
they not only need to understand the red tape, as you call it,
but also the science.
Chairman Johnson. OK. Well, again, I mean, that could be an
interesting discussion to have in terms of--again, if the whole
purpose of this is to coordinate an effort with one point
person that an owner or operator is dealing with, I think you
could certainly have an interesting discussion as to whether or
not that person has to be trained in all the----
Dr. Clifford. It is----
Chairman Johnson [continuing]. As opposed to just trained
in managing and coordinating the different expertises. But, let
me move on.
Dr. Schuchat, I want to talk a little bit about the virus
itself and vaccinations. First of all, how robust is the flu
virus? I mean, how long can it survive if it gets on a dust
particle and gets blown into other farms? I mean, is this a
virus that is going to last days, weeks, months? Or is this
pretty fragile?
Dr. Schuchat. The virus will not last that long, but the
conditions are quite important. So, the colder weather and the
dryer weather permits--is favorable to the virus.
Chairman Johnson. OK. Talking about----
Dr. Schuchat. So, right now, we are sort of in a quiet
period for----
Chairman Johnson. Talking to Mr. Schneider, he said the
virus can actually be on a snowflake, as well, and so it will
last a
little--but, again, are we talking days, then, that the virus
will last?
Dr. Schuchat. Yes. I think the issue with the disinfection
is to make sure that you have reached everything and that it is
not coming back.
Chairman Johnson. In terms of the vaccines, so we are
concerned about trade, the implications of that. I think, just
as Professor Gelb was talking about, of the potential mutation
of the virus with vaccines. Can you speak to that a little bit.
Dr. Schuchat. That is right. Influenza changes constantly,
and that is why it is so difficult. It can mutate and it can
also reassort, so swap parts of its genes with other influenza
viruses. And, two of the three H5 strains that we are dealing
with, the avian strains in the United States, are these
reassortants, where we had high pathogenic H5 avian influenza
from Eurasia that swapped out parts of its genes with the low
pathogenic avian influenzas that we had here in the United
States already.
And, so, the virus is just constantly changing, which makes
vaccine development difficult. The vaccines that we have for
humans as well as for animals are not as highly effective as
some of the other vaccines and the virus can kind of mutate
away from or escape from the vaccines.
There is a lot of balance about the avian vaccines. In the
human vaccines, of course, we do work to prepare candidate
vaccine viruses and have stockpiled vaccine against the
original H5 strains from Asia, but those are really preparing
for pandemic readiness rather than vaccines that we are using
every day.
Chairman Johnson. We are always expecting just a
technological miracle to save us from all these things, but
again, what you are talking about with the vaccine, those are
only going to be a certain percentage effective to begin with.
Plus, we have a real problem with vaccine production in this
country, do we not? I mean, we have a hard time producing
enough vaccine sometimes for human flu. Would we have--I mean,
if we start trying to vaccinate, 300,000 chickens, or 300
million chickens, a couple hundred million turkeys, do we even
have even close to the capacity for that, and can we ramp it up
quickly enough to respond to the changing virus?
Dr. Schuchat. Let me answer about the human vaccines and
let Dr. Clifford respond about avian vaccines. The United
States has invested an enormous amount in expanding our
manufacturing base and the investment in influenza vaccine
production and distribution. We actually have had an 80 percent
increase in the flu vaccines produced and distributed annually
in the past decade as well as a much stronger infrastructure
for pandemic vaccine production for humans. But, the animal
vaccine production works differently.
Chairman Johnson. No, let me quickly stay on the human
vaccine, because I think this is important. We had a pretty
robust vaccine production capability, correct, but then it was
reduced dramatically, a lot of those lawsuits, that type of
thing, and
people--it just was not an attractive business to be in, so
people--drug manufacturers exited the vaccine business,
correct? So, we had to have almost government intervention to
try and boost that production in case of a pandemic or in
reaction to some of these outbreaks, correct?
Dr. Schuchat. That is right. There has been a lot of U.S.
Government investment in stimulating the vaccine industry, both
for influenza vaccines, and then actually for routine vaccines,
we have a very strong public-private partnership right now
where vaccine companies actually are making pretty good profits
right now.
Chairman Johnson. But, again, I want to go back to sort of
the root cause of why we did not have the amount of capacity we
really needed for vaccine, is it really was because it was a
very unattractive business. People were being sued and people
just exited the business, correct?
Dr. Schuchat. Well, I think it was less the suits than the
issue of the profitability, because when you are producing
drugs, people will take medicines for their whole life, and
successful vaccines, you need a couple doses of, perhaps,
forever to prevent diseases from occurring. Flu vaccines you
have to give every year right now. But, the market was not that
favorable. But, things have changed a bit and we are in much
better shape for pandemic readiness right now.
Chairman Johnson. So, is the manufacturing capacity
different for animals versus humans? Dr. Clifford, answer that,
please.
Dr. Clifford. Yes, it is, and our Centers for Veterinary
Biologics works with the companies here. So, I am not concerned
about capacity. It is more economics with the companies,
knowing that we would use the vaccine.
Chairman Johnson. It is still the same production
technique, though, correct, by and large?
Dr. Clifford. By and large, but there are some new
techniques being used, as well, that----
Chairman Johnson. Can speed the production and the
development?
Dr. Clifford. Yes.
Chairman Johnson. So, there is more capacity available for
animal vaccines because you just do not really risk the
liability problem? Why would we have so much more capacity for
animal vaccines versus human?
Dr. Clifford. I really cannot say that from the standpoint
of the human side, but we have a lot of companies that are both
domestic and international. If they do not have the capacity
here, they have approved products that they can move here. So,
if it cannot be produced here, it can be produced somewhere
else. So, the capacity is there to produce the vaccine.
Chairman Johnson. Just a quick question for you, Mr.
Currie. You are going to have a GAO audit on this. Dr.
Clifford, how do you think the USDA is going to fare in that
audit, and I will ask Mr. Currie the same thing. I realize it
is a little unfair, but I have had my facility audited. I have
a general sense of, this is going to be a good one, or I might
have some problems.
Dr. Clifford. I think they will find some good things and I
think they will find some areas that we need to improve on, and
I think you oftentimes find that kind of situation. And, some
of those lessons learned, we are definitely taking those and
working with the industry and States to move those lessons
learned so we do not repeat those same mistakes in the fall and
spring.
Chairman Johnson. Mr. Currie, do you think you are going to
see some improvement from the last time you looked at this
thing, that they have already learned from lessons and amended
some things and----
Mr. Currie. Well----
Chairman Johnson [continuing]. What is your general sense?
Mr. Currie. Yes, sir. I think--well, we know--for instance,
we issued a report on the potential response to an outbreak
like this in 2007 and made a number of recommendations that
touched on, almost to a tee, all of these challenges that we
are facing. I do not know if any of us expected it to be this
big and this bad. USDA addressed all of those recommendations,
and so they are being tested now.
In any emergency, whether it is a natural disaster or an
outbreak like this, there are going to be challenges and
lessons learned and things we did not expect and after action
reporting that we are going to have to study, too, so----
Chairman Johnson. So, again, there has been a good reaction
to your prior report, so, hopefully--but, again, there will
always be lessons learned. It is never perfect. Always room for
improvement. Senator Carper.
Senator Carper. Thanks so much.
We have talked about this a couple of times already in the
hearing. I want to come back and nail it one more time, and
maybe for Dr. Clifford. I am talking about how do we mitigate--
let me just back up.
When we have a farm that goes down in Delmarva because of
the avian influenza, a lot of times, countries around the world
will just say they are not going to take any of our chickens.
And, we also have concerns when we hear from countries, and
part of the trade negotiations going on right now with the
Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership is the use of vaccinations in
livestock or birds and to what extent does that impair our
ability to sell to a lot of different countries. Some countries
just do not want to have animals imported into their countries
that have been vaccinated. You know how it is.
How can we mitigate the impact of vaccine-related export
bans that are imposed on the United States? Dr. Clifford.
Dr. Clifford. So, I think one of the ways to do that is to
have the plans available to share with certain countries so
that they can see those firsthand, how we would use it, and
they would have the knowledge that we are not just going to
rely on vaccine. In other words, there would be an end game so
you are not continuing to use vaccine, because, as already
stated, the virus mutates. These vaccines do not remain highly
effective for long periods of time. So, other countries, if you
use a lot of vaccine, will see that as a weakness to control or
eradicate the disease. They have to understand that we are
using it only as a tool, and if we can convince them to do
that, that would be the first step.
But, if I may just expand on this----
Senator Carper. Just briefly.
Dr. Clifford [continuing]. Just to Senator Tester's
questions earlier about foot and mouth----
Senator Carper. He asked a lot of questions, did he not?
Dr. Clifford. Yes, about foot and mouth disease.
Senator Carper. I told him he holds the record for asking
questions in a 7-minute period.
Dr. Clifford. This is the same thing. We would take no
action to put our industry at risk. We care about our mission
and we care about American agriculture and we would not do
that. But, the fact is, there is a lot of concern out there
about the use of vaccine in a country that is free of FMD with
vaccination. It is the same thing with high path AI. So, we
cannot go around the world and say one thing to one country
because of our position and do something different to somebody
else.
Senator Carper. All right. Thanks.
Dr. Clifford. Thank you, sir.
Senator Carper. You have all heard the term, this is not
our first rodeo, or this is not my first rodeo, and when it
comes to avian influenza, this is not our first rodeo this
year. This one we see from time to time, probably a lot more
than we want to.
One of the things we try to focus on in this Committee is
not dealing with symptoms of problems, but how do we deal with
root causes of the problems. A good example of that is all
these people trying to get into our country from Latin America
and how do we deal with not just the symptoms of problems on
the border, but the root causes of their illegal migration.
Just talk to us about root causes here. Is there any way to
address this challenge, this problem with the avian influenza
by addressing not just the symptoms of the problem, but by
addressing root causes, or is that just not possible? And,
Jack, would you lead off, and then we will just ask the
others----
Dr. Gelb. Yes. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Carper. I will ask you to be brief, if you will.
Dr. Gelb. I think, if you consider the root cause the
introduction from wild bird populations, this is a new normal
for us, as Dr. Clifford mentioned earlier on. We have not seen
this. So, this is a new situation, and what we need to do, if
possible, is to institute the biosecurity at the farm level,
for example--and this is not only commercial farms, but
backyard farmers, which are increasingly important in our
country and numerous, as well. So, on several fronts, this is
very important.
Senator Carper. Yes. One of the things we have done in
Delmarva, we found that some of our earlier avian influenza
outbreaks came not from wild birds, but literally from live
bird auctions in places like New York----
Dr. Gelb. Yes, that is correct.
Senator Carper. They cleaned those up. They have been
cleaned up a lot. That has helped a lot.
Dr. Gelb. Yes. USDA has done a wonderful job, along with
the State of New York, State of New Jersey, because that
metropolitan New York area was once very heavily involved with
certain H7 types of avian influenza viruses.
Senator Carper. OK. Mr. Currie, this is probably not a fair
question for you. If you want to jump in, please do.
Mr. Currie. No, sir. I mean, as I said, we have not
evaluated the current response, but we are very aware of the
new challenges and I think there are going to be new challenges
identified. Monitoring of wild birds is a challenge, and I know
that USDA, I think just last week, issued a couple new
strategies to help determine how this should actually be done
in wild birds and waterfowl----
Senator Carper. OK.
Mr. Currie [continuing]. So that is just a new element that
is going to have to be addressed.
Senator Carper. Thank you.
Dr. Schuchat, has your name ever been mispronounced, Dr.
Schuchat?
Dr. Schuchat. Once or twice.
Senator Carper. What is the wildest mispronunciation of
your name that you recall? [Laughter.]
Dr. Schuchat. I am not really sure.
Senator Carper. You do not want to go there, huh?
[Laughter.]
Dr. Schuchat. I did not prepare for that question. I am
sorry. [Laughter.]
Senator Carper. We will hold that to the next hearing.
Dr. Schuchat. Thank you. Yes. I think to step back and
generalize a little bit, we think of this as an emerging
infection where global threats are local threats and where the
human-animal interface is very important. So, with influenza,
we are always worried because the virus is constantly changing
and we very much are worried about what is happening in the
rest of the world. With avian influenza, we obviously are very
keen to know what is going on in the animal surveillance as
well human surveillance.
Senator Carper. All right. Thank you.
Dr. Clifford, just very briefly.
Dr. Clifford. Yes. Senator, I think it is important to make
one critical point here.
Senator Carper. OK.
Dr. Clifford. This virus came from a virus that was found
in 1997 in China and it was in an H5N1 outbreak in Europe and
Asia when there was the concern about the human pandemic. We
put money around the world into that area. We did not put
enough and we did not do the job. If we would have eradicated
H5N1 from Asia, this would not have happened today.
Senator Carper. Oh, really? That is a great point.
All right, Scott. I am going to call you Doctor one more
time. Dr. Schneider.
Mr. Schneider. That is OK. I kind of like it. [Laughter.]
If I can learn one thing, I think that I am going to be
rethinking my entire biosecurity plan on my farm. I am going to
be reallocating funds toward increasing the structural,
operational, and cultural protocols that I have in place for my
farm. Ultimately, it is my problem and it is my farm and I need
to do something about it. I am going to be training my
employees a little bit better. I am going to be controlling
traffic on and off my farm. And, I am even going to take steps
to try to control dust. And, I would love to include the use of
a vaccine in my toolbox when I come to biosecurity efforts on
my farm.
Senator Carper. That was a great response.
I will just close with this thought. I am an old Navy guy.
I think in terms of nautical terms. In the Navy, we had to face
a big challenge, it is like all hands on deck, and this is all
hands on deck, and I am pleased to see that the hands, some of
the hands and the minds that are here, represented here today,
are focused big time on this and, I think, working
collaboratively together, and I commend you for that.
I appreciate very much what you said, Scott, about taking
responsibility yourself, and that is clearly what needs to be
done.
What I like to say, at Home Depot--I do not know if you
have Home Depot in Minnesota, if you have the ad campaign that
says, ``You can do it. We can help.'' And, this sort of
applies. You can do it, but we can help. We all have a role and
a responsibility to play.
It is going to come again. It is going to come again, in
maybe a different mutation. It may come again this fall, and we
just have to learn from our mistakes, and stuff that works,
figure out what works, do more of that, that which does not
work, do less of that.
Great hearing. Thank you all very much.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Senator Carper.
And, one thing we like to do is offer the witnesses one
last comment.
But, I have to first go to Dr. Clifford. How would we have
wiped out that virus in Eurasia?
Dr. Clifford. We talk about one world, one health, and
global health security. We have to be able to address these
issues and make sure that they are done. We addressed the human
pandemic concern, but we basically reduced the funding and
support necessary to continue to fight it there.
Chairman Johnson. But, how would we have done it? I mean,
you can always throw money at something----
Dr. Clifford. How?
Chairman Johnson [continuing]. But how would we have done
it, when you have migratory birds, and how would we have done
it?
Dr. Clifford. You have to eradicate it from the poultry. It
was in the poultry. It was killing the wild birds, but what
happened, because of its allowance to continue in the continual
lineage, when it became an H5N8, it adapted itself to wild
waterfowl and would not kill some of these ducks. That is the
problem. So, we had to get rid of it in the poultry so you
would stop this exchange of virus back and forth.
Chairman Johnson. So, are the protocols in other countries
not as rigorous as ours, so they do not destroy flocks, that
type of thing?
Dr. Clifford. It depends upon the country, and in Asia, in
parts of Asia, people will actually sleep with their birds and
may have pigs outside and it is a whole different world.
Chairman Johnson. Yes.
Dr. Clifford. But, if we do not help in those cases, many
of those kinds of diseases that are of zoonotic potential may
come back to this country.
Chairman Johnson. That is my point. You are saying we did
not spend enough money to eradicate it. I am not sure we could.
That was my only question.
Dr. Clifford. Well----
Chairman Johnson. But, anyway, I will give you, again,
closing comments.
Dr. Clifford. We could have tried.
Chairman Johnson. I understand. But, we will start with
you, Dr. Clifford.
Dr. Clifford. Again, just thank you, and I think that we
have learned lessons and we want this process to be faster. It
is critical that we get in there, kill birds quickly, and get
the producers back on their feet faster, and that is something
we have taken to heart.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you.
Dr. Schuchat, and I think one of the reasons that Senator
Carper talked about the pronunciation, I actually had a
phonetic pronunciation, but we do not have a real good track
record ourselves here in terms of---- [Laughter.]
So, if there is a really bad pronunciation, it probably
came from this Committee. But, anyway, Dr. Schuchat.
Dr. Schuchat. Influenza has been around for a really long
time and continues to be a major challenge. I think that the
big picture here is continued investment in improved vaccines,
including the so-called universal influenza vaccine, is really
important to get ahead of these kinds of problems for the
future.
Chairman Johnson. Mr. Currie.
Mr. Currie. Yes, sir. I talked about in my opening
statement how important coordination and plans are, and it is
very easy to sit here and talk about those types of things, but
it is very difficult to address a real life situation like
this. However, this is somewhat unique in that we have had an
outbreak. It seems to be slowing, but we expect and we are
worried about the next outbreak. So, we can actually learn many
lessons learned, coordination lessons learned, now and figure
out what our capabilities need to be in other parts of the
country that may be impacted by this. So, we can potentially
learn from this quickly and be ready for what we think might be
coming in the fall.
Chairman Johnson. Professor Gelb.
Dr. Gelb. Thank you, Senator. I think we need to help and
protect the Mr. Schneiders of our country. We have seen the
number of people involved directly in agriculture fall for many
years. We have these large, highly efficient means of producing
food and poultry, but I think, really, the producers and the
farmers, the family farmers--this is a wake-up call for us, I
think, because we have enjoyed the best quality food, safest
food supply in the world. Now, we are importing some shell eggs
here from other countries. What is wrong with that picture?
And, we sometimes get into a problem when we have to import
food, not to mention some other kinds of materials--drugs, et
cetera. Thank you.
Chairman Johnson. Well, first of all, let me say you took
the words right out of my mouth. My own background, my parents
were both raised on small dairy farms. That tradition of the
family farm is dwindling and we cannot allow that to happen,
but we also cannot allow people like Mr. Schneider to remain
exposed.
I think in this hearing, I have learned that he is exposed.
I thought we had coverage. I thought he was just having a hard
time obtaining that coverage. I am afraid he is completely
exposed, so I think both Senator Carper and I will certainly
work together to see what we can do to help those in Mr.
Schneider's position, and not just Mr. Schneider, but everybody
affected by this now and in the future. So, that is, I think,
the real commitment of this Committee.
It is not necessarily in our jurisdiction, but this is
certainly our ability to hold an oversight hearing, to expose
that particular problem. As I said before the panelists sat
down, this is about getting people to admit we have a problem.
I think this is a real problem that needs to be addressed
urgently. Mr. Schneider.
Mr. Schneider. One of the things that I think that might be
able to help people like me is just in the indemnity payment
formula, and one of those things is specific to egg-laying
farmers, but the indemnification could be based on the future
value of the eggs that are supposed to be produced from those
hens.
That is where the egg industry is just a little bit
different than the broilers and the turkeys, whereas over a
period of weeks, those animals are raised and then sent to
market. In the egg industry, those animals are in my facility
for over a year, sometimes even 2 years, and it is the value of
those eggs that are going to be produced, that is where, if
there was an indemnity payment based on that future value, that
would have helped me out an awful lot.
Chairman Johnson. No, as we discussed in my office, too,
there has to be something like--in my business, I purchased
business interruption insurance. If you have a catastrophic
loss, and let us face it, you destroy your flock, that is a
catastrophic loss, so we have to do something--there has to be
some indemnification, some insurance that will keep you in
business, business interruption insurance. Honestly, I am
shocked that we do not have that either as a government program
or in private insurance for that capability. So, again, that
is, to me, a real take-away of this hearing.
So, again, I just want to thank all the witnesses for your
testimony. I will state again, this Committee really does have
a great deal of sympathy for your loss, Mr. Schneider, and we
are dedicated to doing what we can to help you out of your
predicament.
But, this hearing record will remain open for 15 days,
until July 23 at 5 p.m., for the submission of statements and
questions for the record.
This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:56 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[all]