According to federal data, the price of eggs is once again on the rise thanks to an outbreak of avian influenza in multiple states throughout the country.
As of April 24, the average price for a dozen large grade A eggs was $2.99, up nearly 16% from its price in January of $2.52, federal data showed.
In total, nearly 9 million chickens in Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Texas have been confirmed to be affected by the strain of bird flu in recent weeks, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Because of the outbreak, the nation’s egg supply has been shortened due to the threat that the avian flu poses to humans.
During an outbreak of the avian flu, farmers report the incident to the USDA, which sends officials to slaughter the entire flock to stop the spread of the disease, Andrew Stevens, an agricultural economist at the University of Wisconsin, shared with CBS News.
The correlation to the grocery store is obvious, as Stevens says that “hundreds of thousands of them that were laying multiple eggs are now not.”
“You’re taking out all the baseline egg production for up to three months at a time,” Stevens said. “You’re paying for that lag time it takes to shore up and build back up production.”
While prices may be higher than they were four months ago, they’re nowhere near the $4.25 average for a dozen eggs that came in 2022 when the US saw the deadliest outbreak of avian flu in its history.
During 2014’s outbreak, which didn’t end until 2015, the USDA shared that the nation’s largest producer of fresh eggs, Cal-Maine Foods, was forced to slaughter more than 50 million chickens and turkeys because of the outbreak.
The economic effect of the outbreak was an estimated $3.3 billion in losses.
The Food and Drug Administration shared on Tuesday that particles of the bird flu virus were detected in some samples of pasteurized milk.
The avian flu was detected as the FDA has increased testing of domestic milk supplies as a bird flu epidemic spreads through avian and cattle livestock.
Some of the testing samples found inactive remnants of the bird flu virus that were killed while going through the pasteurization process, meaning it did not carry a risk to humans.
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