AS the highly infectious and deadly bird flu ravages poultry populations in the US, egg prices are climbing.
Consumers are dishing out more cash for eggs, and a health expert outlined why that won’t change anytime soon.
Consumers have seen a spike in egg prices at the grocery store[/caption]
High egg prices stem from an ongoing outbreak of avian influenza, or bird flu[/caption]
Dr. Jim Keen, director of veterinary sciences for the Center for a Humane Economy and former research scientist with the USDA, spoke exclusively with The U.S. Sun on the egg crisis[/caption]
“Eggflation” has consumers paying increasingly high prices for the kitchen staple.
Eggs on average cost consumers below $2 per dozen from March 2016 to the beginning of 2022.
Then, prices more than doubled until they hit a record high of $4.82 in January 2023.
Egg prices have dropped since then but rose again in August last year due to hen losses and low supply.
Prices once again fell as flocks were repopulated, but the 2024 holiday season brought about another spike in egg costs.
The cost of a dozen eggs rose nearly 38% from fall 2023 to fall 2024, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some US states are dishing out absurd amounts of money for the kitchen staple due to “eggflation.”
Eggs in Hawaii cost nearly $10, with an average cost per dozen of $9.73.
Egg Prices by State
The average egg price for one dozen eggs by state is as follows:
- Hawaii: $9.73
- Florida: $6.36
- Alabama: $6.12
- Nevada: $6.07
- California: $6.05
- Arizona: $6.03
- Georgia: $5.96
- Maine: $5.84
- Wyoming: $5.84
- Colorado: $5.77
- South Carolina: $5.76
- Vermont: $5.70
- Utah: $5.67
- New Mexico: $5.65
- Tennessee: $5.61
- North Carolina: $5.60
- Louisiana: $5.59
- Connecticut: $5.54
- Montana: $5.46
- Texas: $5.43
- New York: $5.37
- Minnesota: $5.10
- Rhode Island: $5.10
- Idaho: $5.09
- New Jersey: $5.05
- Massachusetts: $5.04
- Mississippi: $5.04
- South Dakota: $5.00
- Virginia: $4.96
- Arkansas: $4.95
- Oklahoma: $4.92
- New Hampshire: $4.91
- Washington: $4.91
- North Dakota: $4.83
- Illinois: $4.82
- Michigan: $4.82
- Oregon: $4.81
- Delaware: $4.79
- Maryland: $4.78
- Wisconsin: $4.78
- West Virginia: $4.64
- Alaska: $4.61
- Pennsylvania: $4.52
- Kentucky: $4.51
- Iowa: $4.44
- Kansas: $4.41
- Ohio: $4.39
- Indiana: $4.33
- Nebraska: $4.25
- Missouri: $4.24
Source: World Population Review
On average, Floridians are paying the second highest price for eggs at $6.36 per dozen.
Alabama, Nevada, and California are also taking a hit from high egg costs, priced on average at $6.12, $6.07, and $6.05, respectively.
RAMPANT DISEASE
While the pandemic and general inflation have played a role in the soaring cost of eggs, the largest factor at play is an outbreak of bird flu.
Also known as avian influenza, bird flu is a disease caused by a virus that most commonly infects birds.
H5N1, a specific strain of bird flu, began infecting US poultry populations in February 2022, with the ability to decimate entire flocks within just 48 hours.
It rapidly grew into the largest bird flu outbreak in the nation’s history and has since impacted over 130 million US birds, according to the USDA.
To dive further into the bird flu outbreak and subsequent egg crisis, The U.S. Sun spoke exclusively with Dr. Jim Keen, director of veterinary sciences for the Center for a Humane Economy and former research scientist with the USDA.
The health expert explained how the current H5N1 strain emerged as a new bird flu strain in China in the late 1990s and slowly spread across multiple continents, killing around 500 million poultry worldwide, before making its way to the US in 2022.
Stemming from infected migrating waterfowl, the virus has since “spread like wildfire” in poultry and wild birds, causing a serious “economic, veterinary, food supply, and public health concern,” according to Dr. Keen.
The expert shared that to date, the USDA has spent around $1.7 billion in an attempt to control the bird flu outbreak in poultry, making it the “most expensive animal disease outbreak in US history.”
There is no surprise that there is an egg shortage and subsequent high egg prices. There is simply a mismatch between supply and demand, causing a rise in prices.”
Dr. Jim Keen
Despite the massive sum of money spent trying to rein in the virus, Dr. Keen feels as if the USDA’s efforts have “completely failed.”
“The saddest part is that the virus is still spreading essentially uncontrolled and unabated in poultry, dairy cattle, and wildlife even after all the previous deaths, culling, quarantines, and expenses,” said the expert.
“I believe that this US H5N1 bird flu virus is now endemic, or made itself permanently at home here, in the US so that HPAI bird flu is no longer a foreign animal disease – just as the virus previously made itself at home across Asia, Africa, and Europe.
“This virus is here to stay. I just hope the virus can be contained in people or at least not become highly virulent in people.”
FUTURE EGG PRICES
Due to the widespread nature of the virus, egg production has subsequently suffered resulting in inflated egg prices.
With over 100 million poultry killed from 2022 through 2024 due to the bird flu, and millions of laying hens being killed weekly in 2025, Dr. Keen claimed that “the bird flu epidemic is getting worse, not better.”
“There is no surprise that there is an egg shortage and subsequent high egg prices,” said the expert. “There is simply a mismatch between supply and demand, causing a rise in prices.”
Dr. Keen also addressed how recuperating from a decimated poultry flock is a lengthy process.
Once a farm is depopulated due to the virus, the buildings must be cleaned, disinfected, vacated, and tested over time to ensure the bird flu is completely eradicated from the premises, explained the expert.
He added that the sheer size of typical US commercial egg-laying farms, with over a million laying hens, plays a role in the extensive amount of time it takes to control a bird flu outbreak.
“There is always a delay in addressing the egg supply shortage due to the control effort, the repopulation of poultry farms with new birds, and the time for pullets to reach egg-laying age,” explained Dr. Keen.
Considering the rampant nature of the bird flu, the expert predicted that egg prices will not be returning to normal levels anytime soon.
“I expect it will take several minutes for the egg shortage to be addressed and for egg prices to lower,” he said.
“The bird flu may once again cause an egg shortage in the fall and winter of 2024 to 2025 when bird flu will be at its fall seasonal peak.”
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The health expert predicted that egg prices likely won’t return to normal levels in the near future[/caption]
