U.S. Egg Prices Surge Amid Poultry Industry Struggles
The recent volatility of egg prices in the United States has been a hot topic. Media coverage has consistently made the connection between supply problems and virulent strains of avian flu that has been afflicting poultry birds since 2022.
Many articles have indicated that, in addition to millions of birds dying from avian flu, infected flocks have widely been killed en masse in an attempt to contain its spread. The livestock industry euphemistically calls this killing of infected animals “depopulation,” and around 150 million birds have been depopulated since the current crisis began.
I have studied industrial livestock production for many years and have seen its myriad problems flash in and out of the media – such as greenhouse gas emissions , air and water pollution , food-borne illnesses , labour exploitation , and animal suffering . But it’s rare for the sector to stay in the media for long.
The unusually heavy media coverage of expensive eggs, depopulated chickens and avian flu has highlighted some of the deep problems and risks of modern poultry production. Unfortunately, however, important context and dynamics have been regularly omitted.
Unpacking key omissions helps to better understand both the nature of these chronic risks of infectious disease and the perilous response of the Trump administration.
Multiple strains of avian flu chronically circulate within populations of both wild and domesticated birds . Avian flu is prone to frequent mutations, and occasionally some strains become more virulent and spillover across species.
In addition to the problems avian flu in poultry production, recent media coverage has also highlighted the virus’s broader dangers.
Avian flu is currently ravaging many wild animal species around the world , reaching into extremely remote places and even zoos .
In the U.S., avian flu recently spilled over into cattle – causing widespread illness after a mutation enabled intra-species transmission.
Avian flu has also caused a small number of severe human illnesses in the U.S. (primarily workers in poultry operations). Although no human-to-human transmission is evident – a necessary condition for a pandemic – this potential remains a grave threat .
Although the media coverage of egg prices, depopulated chickens and avian flu has cast a valuable spotlight on many aspects of modern poultry production, it has also tended to leave out some important elements.
Mentions in the media of many millions of chickens being killed to contain the spread of avian flu will surely sound jarring to some. But such figures pale in comparison to the 9.5 billion chickens slaughtered annually in the U.S. and the 76 billion slaughtered annually worldwide .
Poultry birds now comprise 70 per cent of the total biomass of all birds on earth . Most are produced in densely-packed operations where reproduction, life and death have been greatly accelerated.
Modern chickens have been selectively bred to either put on weight (broilers) or produce eggs (layers) very quickly. Broilers reach slaughter weight in a mere six weeks . Layer hens produce nearly an egg a day for about a year or two, before being slaughtered. These short life-cycles are rarely mentioned in coverage of depopulations.
The growing risk of avian flu mutations relate to both enormity of poultry bird populations – by far the biggest habitat for the virus – and the unhealthy conditions of life in large enclosures .
According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture , over 97 per cent of layers live in operations with at least 10,000 birds. Over 99 per cent of broilers are grown in operations with annual sales of at least 100,000 birds.
This scale also relates to a question that has, with a few notable exceptions , received scant coverage: since infected populations cannot simply be shipped to the slaughterhouse, how are the birds actually killed?
A leading approach to depopulation is ventilation shutdown . This involves turning off the powerful fans needed to make the ambient conditions in large enclosures bearable, and results in agonizing deaths.
Researchers are investigating ways to augment ventilation shutdown as part of a broader research agenda seeking to develop systematic ways to depopulate large operations . This agenda clearly illustrates that the livestock industry is acutely aware of the great risks of infectious disease evolution within these spaces.
In the 2024 election campaign, Republicans regularly pointed to high egg prices in efforts to highlight rising inflation . In early 2025, the continuing rise of egg prices has cast a glare on U.S. President Donald Trump’s failed promise to immediately solve inflation.
In response to scrutiny, the Trump administration initially tried to blame Biden for the depopulation of chickens . While such deflection might work for a time, Trump and his advisors realize they need a strategy to increase egg supplies .
This emerging strategy must be viewed in relation to Trump’s sweeping assault on state institutions and regulations – which includes undermining crucial capacity for infectious disease surveillance . Trump made immediate cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and forced it to disengage with the World Health Organization . He has also promised big cuts to the National Institutes of Health .
In this context, it’s unsurprising that Trump is laying out a simple plan to increase the egg supply : rebuilding layer populations, reducing depopulations and trusting the livestock and pharmaceutical industries to find ways of containing avian flu – likely through vaccines and strengthened biosecurity .
It’s profoundly irrational to be weakening infectious disease surveillance in the midst of the current avian flu crisis (and amid mounting infectious disease risks more generally ).
It’s also hard to fathom how further empowering the leading actors in poultry production can be expected to resolve the risks of avian flu that are so bound up in the nature of modern production .
Pursuing this course might temporarily bring egg prices down, but it also inevitably means passing untold risks into the future .
Tony Weis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.