Egg Shortages Hit Supermarkets as Bird Flu Decimates Flocks

This may not go over easy with many Americans: There’s an egg shortage. Bird flu is wreaking havoc on flocks of laying hens, driving up egg prices and causing scattered shortages around the country. The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service reported January 3 that the average price for a dozen eggs had risen 60 percent from last year. The wholesale price for a carton of large eggs in New York climbed to $6.06 per dozen. In the Midwest, the price was around $5.75, and in California, it was $8.97.For many Americans, however, it’s not only the cost that’s the issue, but also being able to get their hands on this food staple at all. The main reason for the shortage is the contagious H5N1 strain of bird flu that has been devastating flocks of laying hens. The virus was first detected in North America in 2021 and has been infecting millions of animals and killing millions of birds. In February 2023, a reported 50 million chickens were affected by the virus. By December 2024, the American Veterinary Medical Association reported that more than 125 million chickens and turkeys had died from the virus or were culled. Even as poultry farmers have culled millions of birds affected by the virus, the USDA reports that as of Thursday, there were more than 13 million birds affected by the virus in America. The president of the American Egg Board, Emily Metz, told USA Today, “Our supply has been tight due to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, which is devastating to egg farmers. In the U.S., we’ve lost more than 40 million laying hens this year to bird flu.”While the bird flu has put a strain on the supply of eggs, Americans’ demand has not let up, which has helped fuel price increases and led to shortages on grocery store shelves. Besides the scarcity, some grocery stores have changed their philosophy around the pricing of eggs, too, Nerdwallet reports. Grocery stores used to price eggs low, sometimes below the wholesale price, to lure customers into their stores for eggs with the hopes they would leave with more groceries in their carts than what they came in for. However, some retailers have decided not to mark down the cost of eggs to avoid selling out and having empty shelves. The shortage may not end in the near future. Poultry farmers have to rebuild flocks even as the virus is still spreading quickly. Since October, roughly 7 percent of the egg-laying population, or 21 million hens, died because of the virus. The virus has been blamed for a series of other animal deaths in America as well. In a Washington state animal sanctuary, more than 20 wild cats recently died from the virus. The Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington said its team was “grieving” the loss of the large cats, which included a Bengal tiger, four bobcats, and four cougars. Additionally, the virus has been detected in dairy cows and even humans. In America, 66 people have contracted the virus and one person who health officials said had pre-existing conditions died. Although the virus has decimated poultry flocks, scientists have sought to tamp down concerns about the bird flu becoming the next pandemic as they note the virus would need to make some mutations in order to more easily infect humans. It is rare for humans to contract the virus or for human-to-human transmission to occur. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that the risk of the virus to the general public is low. The director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Michael Osterholm, told CNN the people most at risk of contracting the virus are dairy and poultry laborers and people with backyard flocks who might come in contact with an infected animal.

Egg Shortages Hit Supermarkets as Bird Flu Decimates Flocks

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