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Rose Acre Farms CEO testifies to Senate Ag Committee about bird flu

By Clayton Baumgarth

Posted March 3, 2025

(Courtesy of US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry)

One of Indiana’s largest egg producers encouraged the use of vaccines on flocks in testimony to the Senate Agriculture Committee Thursday.

Tom Wesner, CEO of Rose Acre Farms in Jackson County, had to depopulate more than 2.6 million birds after a bird flu outbreak a month ago. He told the committee more needs to be done to combat the disease.

“Rose Acre Farms fully supports vaccination in their industry,” he said. “We have to control this disease. We have to do it with offense, not defense, which, in my opinion, is what we've done to this point.”

Wesner argued that other countries already use vaccines to fight bird flu.

“I looked up on the charts, if you look at the chicken last year that left this country, almost 40 percent of it went to countries that are also vaccinating,” he said. “So, I can't understand why we can't get together with those countries and figure this out, so we don't ruin trade.”

He testified that his company has lost 10 million birds to avian influenza since 2015, with six million happening in the last two months.

Wesner’s testimony aligns with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins’ $1 billion plan to combat bird flu and lower egg prices, with $100 million set aside for finding strategies to protect flocks nationwide.

On Sunday, another commercial flock in Jay County was confirmed with bird flu, with 214,000 egg laying hens set to be depopulated in the coming weeks.