A cruel way to control bird flu? The poultry giants are eliminated and cashed in.

Large poultry farms received millions of dollars for their losses. Animal welfare groups say the aid reinforces inhumane killings of birds exposed to the virus.

The highly deadly form of avian flu that has been circulating around the world for 2021 has killed tens of millions of birds. , forced poultry farmers in the United States to cull entire flocks and caused a brief but alarming rise in the price of eggs.

More recently, it has infected dairy cows in several United States and at least one person in Texas who had close contact with the animals, authorities said this week.

It is shows that the epidemic is proving particularly costly for American taxpayers.

Last year, the Department of Agriculture paid poultry producers more than a half a billion dollars for the turkeys, chickens and laying hens they were forced to kill after the H5N1 flu strain was detected on their farms.

Officials say the compensation program is intended to encourage farms to report outbreaks quickly. This is because the government pays for birds killed by slaughter, not those that die from disease. According to the agency, early reports are helping to limit the spread of the virus to neighboring farms.

Slaughters are often carried out by turning up the heat in barns that house thousands of birds, a method that causes heatstroke and which, according to many veterinarians and animal protection organizations, causes unnecessary suffering.

Among the largest recipients of the agency's bird flu compensation funds from 2022 to present Last year, Jennie-O Turkey Store, which received more than $88 million, and Tyson Foods, which received nearly 30 million dollars. Despite their losses, both companies reported billions of dollars in profits last year.

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