One Arizona farmer says vaccinating chickens against avian influenza would help solve the country's egg crisis

More than 160 million wild and domestic birds have been infected with bird flu across the United States since 2022. The virus has caused outbreaks on farms in every U.S. state, leading to millions of dead chickens and an egg shortage that’s caused prices to surge.

There are vaccines for chickens that could help stop the spread of the disease. Last week, a New Jersey company received a “conditional license” for its poultry vaccine from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But so far it is still not available to farmers.

Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd speaks with one of those farmers, Glenn Hickman, president and CEO of Hickman’s Family Farms in Arizona.