The Shadow
RICHMOND, Va. (VR) —To state the obvious: Eggs are expensive.
Consumers are feeling the pinch from the increasing cost of everyday expenses. But while inflation is causing goods and services to rise in general, the spike in egg prices has another culprit—highly pathogenic avian influenza.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, HPAI has affected more than 166 million birds across the U.S. since 2022. In January and February alone, the U.S. lost about 43 million birds to the disease.
These numbers include turkeys and poultry raised for meat, but egg layers have been the most impacted. Infected birds are depopulated to contain the virus, and the resulting production declines have tightened supply and sharply pushed up egg prices.
The USDA reports that prices in January were 53% higher compared to the same time last year.
“Egg supplies are tight right now due to avian influenza, but the U.S. is still producing enough total eggs to meet normal demand,” said Tony Banks senior assistant director of agriculture, development and innovation for Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. “The market also experiences distribution challenges during the disease outbreak. Challenges like hauling eggs longer distances and other logistical issues, replacement hen availability, state mandates for cage-free egg production and panic buying all help drive higher egg prices.”
The USDA recently announced a $1 billion dollar comprehensive strategy to curb avian influenza, protect the U.S. poultry sector and lower egg prices. Poultry and egg producers also are receiving assistance for flock losses.
In Virginia, there have been three cases of HPAI in commercial flocks since the recent outbreak began in 2022, out of more than 767 cases in commercial farms across the U.S. Two involved turkey farms in January 2023 and one in January this year at an Accomack County broiler chicken operation.
Hobey Bauhan, president of the Virginia Poultry Federation, said that although the broiler operation was a large farm with 441,000 infected birds, “that single case has not spread to other surrounding farms.”
Additionally, while Virginia isn’t a major table egg producing state—ranking 26th in the nation—so far the commonwealth “has had no HPAI cases in commercial table egg layer flocks,” Bauhan said.
Like all poultry and egg producers, Bauhan said Virginia officials and farmers are taking proactive biosecurity measures to mitigate avian influenza. Initiatives like the Virginia Poultry Disease Task Force developed stringent prevention and rapid response plans including strict biosecurity to prevent transmission, surveillance protocols and resources for responding to outbreaks.
“We have worked hard to prevent exposure of commercial flocks to avian influenza and be ready for effective response should cases occur,” he said.
While avian influenza’s risk to people remains low, farmers, backyard chicken hobbyists and wildfowl hunters are urged to help limit its spread. To learn more about poultry biosecurity, visit USDA’s Defend the Flock website at bit.ly/4hbVaKy.
