(MENAFN- AzerNews) A highly contagious strain of bird flu is ripping through flocksof major egg producers around the U.S. It's not just chickens beinginfected – dairy cows have also tested positive, and one person inTexas is believed to have caught the virus after working withaffected cattle, Azernews reports, citing a foreign mediaoutlet .
As the Type A H5N1 influenza virus spreads, major egg producershave been forced to kill millions of chickens in attempts tocontain the outbreak.
It's an economic loss for producers, and may soon become aburden on families' grocery store bills.
"We would expect to see some increase in prices because you'rerapidly pulling a large number of potential eggs out of the marketfor the next 30 to 60 days," said Amy Hagerman, a professor ofagricultural economics at Oklahoma State University.
Allergy season is getting longer and more severe in dozens of UScities: Here's where Under normal circumstances, egg prices wouldusually be dropping after the Easter holiday, when demand is high doesn't expect that to be the case this year.
Plus, egg prices haven't fully recovered from the ups and downsof the past two years. In 2022, when bird flu knocked out 10% ofthe country's laying hens, prices skyrocketed.
Now, the average price of a dozen eggs is about $2.99, accordingto federal data. That's worse than six months ago, when a cartontypically ran about $2, but way better than January 2023, when adozen eggs cost $4.82 on average.
While egg prices start creeping higher if the avian influenzaoutbreaks grow, the situation is different when it comes to dairyproducts.
How rare is your state quarter - and is it worth more than 25cents? Dairy farmers in Texas first became concerned three weeksago when cattle started falling ill with what officials called"mystery dairy cow disease," Texas Department of AgricultureCommissioner Sid Miller said.
Milk production fell sharply and the cows were lethargic andweren't eating much.
"We hadn't seen anything like it before," he said. "It was kindof like they had a cold." With cattle, the virus doesn't appear tobe nearly as deadly or contagious as it is with poultry, Hagermansaid.
"If this virus gets into a poultry block, every animal isinfected within a very short period of time. And we're just notseeing that so far, or it's not being reported by the cattleproducers and by the veterinarians.
" That means fewer deaths for dairy cattle, and fewer productiondisruptions for the dairy industry.
Poultry prices are also not being impacted at this point. Whilemillions of egg laying chickens have been depopulated, commercialbroiler operations – chickens raised for their meat – have not beengreatly affected. Some turkey flocks have been impacted.
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