A controversial proposal from U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to let bird flu naturally spread through poultry farms is raising alarms among scientists, who say the move could be inhumane and dangerous.

Kennedy recently suggested that instead of culling infected birds, farmers should instead allow the virus to run through flocks to identify naturally immune birds.

"We can identify the birds and preserve the birds that are immune to it," Kennedy recently told Fox News.

Though Kennedy has no direct control over farms, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has also expressed interest in testing the idea.

"There are some farmers that are out there that are willing to really try this on a pilot as we build the safe perimeter around them to see if there is a way forward with immunity," Rollins told CBS News.

But veterinary experts say this could backfire.

"That's a really terrible idea, for any one of a number of reasons," said Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas, in a report published by The New York Times.

Since January 2022, bird flu has affected more than 166 million birds across every U.S. state. Experts warn that allowing the virus to spread could increase the risk of it mutating.

>https://phys.org/news/2025-03-secretary-health-human-bird-flu.html