$6 Eggs Could Be On The Way: Bird Flu Prompted Egg Shortage Continues

$6 eggs coming soon? Bird flu has caused not only an egg shortage, but a steep price increase in many regions across the United States. The H5N2, H5N1, H5N9, and H5N8 avian flu outbreak is the worst incident of such a virus in decades, according to many agriculture experts.

Even though the average price of eggs is around $2 to $4.49 per dozen now, BB&T Capital Markets analyst Brett Hundley said prices could soon climb even higher — prompting $6 eggs per dozen by fall.

“It’s almost scary to think about what could happen to egg prices,” Hundley added. “We think that turkeys and egg layers are most at risk. We think broilers are at risk but considerably less so.”

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the bird flu outbreak around the Midwest has caused an egg shortage and some “egg-dependent” companies are reportedly considering importing eggs from foreign farmers to make up for the lack of available eggs from American farmers.

The Midwest has been the hardest hit by the H5N2 bird flu so far, but BB&T expects predict the avian flu will impact the southeastern region of the United States by fall.

Health officials reportedly remain “cautiously optimistic” that humans will not be affected by the latest H5N2 bird flu strain, CDC representative Dr. Alicia Fry said. The CDC has reportedly isolated a “pure strain” of the H5N2 virus for possible use in a human vaccine for the bird flu, just in case such a need should ever arise.

Many food suppliers are already looking for egg substitutes for their recipes, and adapting offerings in an effort to deal with the bird flu egg shortage and ever-increasing cost to buy a dozen eggs. H5N2 has almost exclusively targeted factory farms where chickens, ducks, and turkeys are kept indoors for the bulk of their existence.

At least 30 percent of the eggs in the United States, including those sold by the dozen, liquid eggs, frozen eggs, and dried eggs, have disappeared from the marketplace during the bird flu outbreak. Chicken prices are near record lows because of it, too, according to the CDC. The organization also maintains that the chickens culled due to the bird flu outbreak are still “safe for human consumption, if handled properly.”

By mid-June, nearly 48 million birds died after contracting the avian flu. Approximately 40 million of the birds culled or killed were reportedly commercial laying chickens.

What do you think about the possibility of $6 eggs and the bird flu outbreak?

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