16.07.2024
Study
How limited supply due to the outbreak of the deadliest bird flu is hitting the egg industry
Since the virus emerged in February last year, tens of millions of farm-raised birds have died in the United States, and egg prices have skyrocketed.
The current global outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), a type of avian influenza (H5N1), began in early 2022 and has killed more than 58 million chickens and turkeys. This group, of course, includes laying hens, and experts fear that the virus will continue to spread. The current outbreak has led to a severe shortage of eggs and caused prices to skyrocket and record profits for producers in early 2023.
Experts fear that the current migration season could lead to further spread of the avian virus or its mutation among poultry. Although the virus is not currently endemic to American poultry flocks, it can have a significant impact on food safety, said Maurice Piteski, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of California, Davis, USA.
Impact of avian influenza
In 2015, avian influenza of the H5N2 subtype was detected in a number of poultry farms in the Midwest, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The outbreak affected nearly 50 million birds and became the most expensive animal health emergency in USDA history, the government agency said.
By the summer of 2015, more than 43 million birds had been destroyed, including nearly 30 million in Iowa alone, the state with the largest egg production, the Los Angeles Times reported. The average price of eggs increased by 120% from April 22 to May 30, 2015. The effects, however, were seen across the country, with prices in California rising 71% over the same time period. According to the CDC, cases of the disease have been on the decline in 2016.
The current bird flu outbreak, which began in January 2022, has spread to 47 states, according to the CDC. By November 2022, 50 million birds had been infected. Since the end of December, the government has not reported any new cases of bird flu among commercial or backyard flocks, which means that the spread of the virus may have temporarily subsided.
After several months of rising prices, the price of eggs in grocery stores dropped by 6.7% in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.
The current strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus was first detected in 1996 in geese in China and in 1997 in humans in Hong Kong.
“At the end of the day, it’s a continuation of the same outbreak that started in 1996,” Dr. Malik Peiris, head of the Department of Virology at the University of Hong Kong, who has helped oversee the response to several outbreaks of avian influenza in Southeast Asia, told the New York Times. “In fact, it’s never going to go away.”
According to the CDC, highly pathogenic avian influenza is transmitted by waterfowl, such as ducks, which can quickly transmit the virus to poultry through contact with the organism’s secretions.
With spring migration now underway and projected to end in May, experts and industry representatives are concerned that the virus will continue to spread to commercial flocks.
Several vaccines against highly pathogenic avian influenza have been developed. In March 2023, the Biden administration announced plans to test a poultry vaccine that could potentially be widely used in the United States.
A little history about eggs
Humans have been eating eggs for about 6 million years. The first humans to eat eggs likely took them from nests in the wild and ate them raw, according to the American Egg Council.
Wild jungle birds were domesticated for egg production in India in 3200 B.C., according to the American Egg Council, and are believed to have been the first to domesticate chickens in ancient Egypt and China.
Egg cartons were invented by Joseph Coyle in 1911 in Smithers, British Columbia. Legend has it that the carton was created to settle a dispute over broken eggs between a farmer and a hotel owner. The first egg cartons were made of paper.
The US egg industry started as a backyard business. In the early 1900s, farmers raised chickens to provide eggs for their families, according to The American Egg Board. Extra eggs were sold at local markets. As demand for eggs grew, farmers increased the size of their flocks. Farmers had more eggs to sell, but also more problems. Conveyor belts and egg washing machines were introduced.
In the early 1960s, the egg industry moved from small farms to large commercial enterprises. Today, robots are widely used in commercial operations.
Iowa leads the nation in producing over 14.8 billion eggs per year. Ohio follows with 7.9 billion eggs produced annually. In 2022, according to Statista, about 9.1 billion dozen eggs were produced.
In the United States, eggs are washed. In the UK and other European countries, eggs are usually not washed and do not need to be refrigerated because their cuticles are not damaged. Washing the cuticle cleans the shell but destroys the cuticle.
The Easter egg may symbolize religious traditions, but it is believed that the origin of eggs, as part of the beginning of spring, is actually pagan. According to the Los Angeles Times: “Pre-Christian Ukrainians believed that the egg represented the coming of spring ⸺ a celebration of rebirth after nature’s long death in winter. They began observing the pagan ritual of dyeing eggs as a form of gratitude to the sun for warming the Earth, and the event became an integral part of the celebration of Easter as we know it today.”