Is bird flu driving up the cost of eggs in New Orleans? | News

Customers in Louisiana and nationwide are dealing with egg prices going up and sparsely populated aisles at the grocery store following the spread of the bird flu in the U.S.

The risk of bird flu, or H5N1, hit home for Louisiana after a patient here was the first human death from the virus in the U.S., the state Department of Health said Jan. 6. The patient contracted avian influenza after exposure to a noncommercial backyard flock of birds and wild birds.

Across the country, hundreds have taken to social media to share videos where the popular ingredient and breakfast staple was in short supply at major retailers, ABC reports. 

The Jan 10. U.S. Department of Agriculture market data report found that egg prices are up nearly 38% nationally in the past year and prices spiked 8% in November alone during the holiday season.

The average price for a carton of a dozen eggs cost people $3.65, according to the USDA data, compared with $2.14 a year ago. Prices were cheapest in the South at an average of $3.40 per carton and most expensive on the West Coast at $4.20 per carton.

While Louisiana has not experienced cases of bird flu among its commercial chicken populations, the price of eggs rose due to a diminished number of table egg-laying birds in states and regions that ship eggs to Louisiana such as California and the Midwest, said William Strickland, an agriculture and natural resources extension agent with LSU’s AgCenter.

In Northwest Louisiana, Stickland said he personally saw the rise in egg prices at stores.

“I actually took a picture right when I came back from winter break that eggs were over five dollars at the store I was at for a dozen,” Strickland said.

Bird flu had impacted egg prices in the past like two years ago when a then-price surge left consumers and New Orleans-area bakeries reeling. The 2023 rise in egg prices was also compounded by increases in feed, fuel and labor costs.

Louisiana generally does not produce enough eggs to feed the demand from consumers, Strickland said. Last year, the state produced around 50 eggs-per-person in the state, below the average amount of eggs a resident eats a year.

Farm sites typically have a lot more birds for egg production than broilers, or chickens raised for their meat. Strickland said refilling the egg laying chickens is likely to take more time.

“I don’t think in a month, egg prices are going to drop back down,” Strickland said.

Eggs may be more expensive or difficult to find in some stores, but Strickland said consumers should not be concerned about the contracting bird flu through eating eggs, adding that the USDA has protocols in place to keep the virus from entering food supplies and cooking should kill the virus.

“H5N1 usually has mild symptoms in humans, of course this was the first death that we had in Louisiana unfortunately, but we’ve had about 60-some odd cases around the nation that haven’t presented that way,” Strickland said. “It’s very deadly in our birds so we see it in our birds very quickly, and the USDA has a playbook for how to handle it and they depopulate the entire farm. So that doesn’t really go into our supply.”