After a quick escalation in cases early this month the ongoing Avian Flu outbreak appears to have slowed significantly. Louisiana Ag Commissioner Mike Strain told WWL early this month the outbreak had claimed nearly 28 million birds, but by the end of this month that number should only climb to 30 million, with top end estimates of the total impact being 40 million birds.
The bird flu surge has sent egg prices soaring, up 65%-70% over the past few months according to Strain. That’s because nearly half of the losses have come among egg laying birds.
“We’re hoping once again that we can get control on this and just in a period of a few months we can get the price back down,” said Strain.
Chickens aren’t the only fowl catching heat right now. The virus, which is spread mostly by migrating ducks, has killed dozens of bald eagles.
“Our bald eagles, as you know, are predators, and what has happened is they are getting it from the ducks and when the ducks get sick when the eagles eat those ducks, the eagles get the disease as well,” said Strain.
With the hot summer quickly approaching, ducks are expected to stop migrating, which limits viral spread. Strain said the industry was able to limit losses this time around by learning from the horrific outbreak that killed over 100 million fowl a decade ago.
“With all of the protocols in place, everything we learned in the previous outbreak we are putting into effect, biosecurity is the key,” said Strain.