US faces egg shortage as farms lose hens to bird flu
Problems with chicken eggs have become one of the hottest topics of discussion in 2024. Their rapid rise in price, as well as endless recalls of this dietary product, became an important factor in the presidential elections. Today, they are in the news again, as chicken eggs have simply disappeared from the shelves. And bird flu is to blame for this, which has affected more than 111 million birds, the publication writes Food & Wine.
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Grocers across the U.S. are experiencing shortages of chicken eggs. States that require producers to cage-free their chickens have been hit particularly hard by an increase in cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
“After two months of relative calm, we recently discovered outbreaks in Utah, Oregon, California and Washington, three of which require cage-free housing for hens,” said Emily Metz, CEO and president of the American Egg Board (AEB), an organization representing U.S. egg producers.
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More than 40% of American laying hens are cage-free, and 60% of bird flu cases are associated with farms without cage-free entrances. According to the USDA’s monthly report, table egg production fell 2,6% year over year and 1,6% month over month in September. Things only got worse in October. As the report notes, “In October, (HPAI) confirmations resulted in the loss of 2,8 million laying hens in Utah, Washington, and Oregon. Based on these losses, the fourth-quarter table egg production forecast has been revised down by 5 million dozen to 1 million dozen. Overall, table egg production in 980 is projected to be 2024 million dozen, down 7% from the prior year.”
Egg production has been adjusted for a decline in the first half of 2025, meaning prices will rise.
"The daily wholesale price of large eggs in New York averaged 313,3 cents per dozen in October, up about 20 cents from September and 184 cents from October last year," the report said.
And while prices stabilized in the first days of October, they began to "rise sharply" again on October 9: "After rising 20 cents or more a day for a week, the rise began to slow and eventually leveled off at 446 cents a dozen at the end of October."
Based on these data, the USDA projected average wholesale whole egg prices in the fourth quarter at 340 cents per dozen. For 2025, the agency adjusted its average price projections by “25 cents in each of the first two quarters, to 250 cents and 200 cents per dozen, respectively.”
As of December 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 111 chickens had been infected with bird flu in 412 states. Experts say that's what's making eggs more expensive, not inflation.
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"Bird flu is by far the biggest factor influencing egg prices today," said American Farm Federation economist Bernt Nelson. "We've seen about 10 million birds infected in the last couple of months alone."
But birds aren’t the only animals affected by the virus. As Food & Wine previously reported, bird flu was found in a batch of raw milk sold in California, prompting a recall. A child in California has been diagnosed with the virus, marking the first such case in U.S. history.
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