  We develop a quantum kinetic theory for photons in the presence of an axion
background and in the collisioness limit. In deriving the classical regime of
our quantum kinetic equations, we observe that they capture well known features
of axion electrodynamics. By projecting the Wigner function onto a polarization
basis, relating the Wigner matrix function with the Stokes parameters, we
establish the dispersion relations and transport equations for each
polarization space component. Additionally, we investigate how the axion
background affects the dispersion relations of photon collective modes within
an electron-positron plasma at equilibrium temperature $T$. While the plasmon
remains unaffected, we find that the axion background breaks the degeneracy of
transverse collective modes at order $e g_{a\gamma}T(\partial a)$, where $e$
represents the electron charge, $ g_{a\gamma}$ denotes the photon-axion
coupling, and $\partial a$ represents the scale associated with variations in
the axion field.
