Nov. 23 (UPI) — Egg production is down and prices are higher as the holiday season approaches due to a particularly persistent strain of H5N1, or avian influenza, a prominent industry group says.
More 73 million egg-laying hens have been affected by the latest bird flu strain as of August, sending egg prices soaring this fall, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Data released last week Department of Agriculture showed the weekly New York wholesale price of a dozen eggs stood at $4.50 per dozen on Nov. 8, continuing a surge from just over $2 per dozen beginning in early October as available inventory dipped.
“Starting from a stable 216 cents per dozen in early October, prices began to climb steeply beginning on October 9th,” the USDA said. “After climbing by 20 cents or more per day for more than a week, the increases began to ease and eventually leveled at 446 cents per dozen at the end of October.”
The egg price increases began even before new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, were detected on Oct. 15 and Oct. 24.
It’s likely the volatile prices for eggs will continue throughout the holiday season because of the continuing bird flu outbreaks, which are also adversely affecting supplies of turkeys as Thanksgiving looms, experts said.
“Avian influenza continues to be a problem,” Farm Bureau economist Bernt Nelson said in a release. “We’ve had 3-and-a-half million birds affected this October. Egg layers and turkeys are still the greatest impacted by this.”
Nelson said 73 million egg-layers are affected overall, “and this has resulted in some volatility in egg prices. If we look at turkeys, we’ve had over 14 million turkeys affected by the virus. So, production for turkeys is down about six percent from last year.”
Since March, there have nearly 500 detections of avian influenza in dairy herds in 16 states, with California home to 263 of the cases.
Reports of egg shortages in grocery stores have also surfaced, prompting a calls for “immediate action” against HPAI from Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who this week urged Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to issue emergency approvals of bovine and avian vaccines and mandate their use.
“As the virus continues to spread, supply shocks threaten to increase the price of eggs going into the holiday season — an added cost Arizonans cannot afford,” Gallego wrote.