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Ohio Egg Farm Will Slaughter Over 1.3 Million Chickens

In the latest disruption on the nation’s food supply, an Ohio egg farm will slaughter 1.3 million chickens due to bird flu.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture said all 1.35 million chickens on the farm in Ohio’s Union County will be slaughtered to help limit the spread of the highly contagious virus after a case was confirmed in the flock this week,” ABC News reports.

“A case was confirmed.”

Does that mean the farm detected only one case of bird flu?

The solution is to kill all the chickens on the farm?

The decision to slaughter over 1.3 million chickens will likely increase egg prices in the coming weeks.

ABC News reports:

The outbreak that began in early 2022 has been much less severe this year as fewer cases of the virus are being found among the wild birds that spread it. But there have still been 8.1 million birds killed this year to help control the spread of the disease and 5.8 million of those have come just this month as several large egg farms have been struck. That includes 1.2 million birds at one Iowa egg farm and another 940,000 chickens at one Minnesota egg farm that had to be killed.

Egg farms tend to be much larger than turkey or chicken farms, sometimes with millions of birds. That’s a big part of why Iowa — the nation’s largest egg producing state — has been hit the hardest in this outbreak with nearly 17.3 million birds killed. Ohio is also one of the top egg producing states but it has seen only 5.1 million birds killed because of bird flu.

This week, there have also been sizeable bird flu cases confirmed on farms in Minnesota, Maryland, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Georgia and California. But the biggest one of those cases was the Maryland chicken farm where 198,200 birds were killed.

In 2022, nearly 58 million birds were slaughtered as part of the outbreak. The highly contagious virus is spread easily by wild birds through droppings and nasal discharges.

The bird flu outbreak, combined with inflation, will continue the trend of higher egg prices for American consumers.

“In October 2023, the average cost of a dozen, Grade A large eggs was $2.07, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, retrieved from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis,” Nerd Wallet reports.

“The price of eggs more than doubled from the beginning of 2022 until hitting its peak in Jan. 2023. Since then, prices have fallen,” the outlet added.

Per Nerd Wallet:

Eggs became so expensive because of a widespread outbreak of H5N1, a highly transmissible and fatal strain of avian influenza, or bird flu. This outbreak started in early 2022 and grew into the largest bird flu outbreak in U.S. history.

So the outbreak lowered egg supply, while demand remained consistent. That’ll naturally raise prices.

In recent months, the number of cases has largely been declining, helping to ease egg prices. Still, poultry experts are holding their breath amid the current fall migration season (during which wild birds can spark another outbreak among poultry), hoping there isn’t a spike in cases.

While egg prices are declining, they have still not reached pre-pandemic norms.


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