• Published: Feb. 27, 2025, 7:26 a.m.

• https://www.mlive.com/news/2025/02/trump-unveils-new-bird-flu-plan-egg-prices-could-jump-another-41-this-year.html

By 

• The Associated Press

By JOSH FUNK and JOSH BOAK Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Agriculture Department predicts record egg prices could soar more than 40% in 2025, as the Trump administration offered the first new details Wednesday about its plan to battle bird flu and ease costs.

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With an emphasis on farms tightening their measures to prevent bird flu’s spread, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA will invest another $1 billion on top of the roughly $2 billion it has already spent since the outbreak began in 2022.

The main reason egg prices have climbed — hitting an all-time average high of $4.95 per dozen this month — is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the virus’ spread when cases are found. Most were egg-laying chickens. Just since the start of the year, more than 30 million egg layers have been killed.

What more can farmers do to stop bird flu?

Egg and poultry farmers have already been working since the bird flu outbreak of 2015 to protect their birds by making workers change clothes and shower before entering barns, using separate sets of tools, and sanitizing any vehicles that enter farms. The challenge is that wild birds easily spread the virus.

The USDA is working on identifying the most effective measures farmers can take and helping spot any weaknesses in their plans.

The department has already done biosecurity reviews on about 150 farms and only one had an outbreak afterward, the USDA said, so officials believe more can be done to protect birds and they are going to make those reviews available to more farms. Any farm that has an outbreak now has to undergo a biosecurity audit. And the government will help pay up to 75% of the needed biosecurity improvements.

Egg prices will get much worse this year

The USDA now predicts the cost of eggs will go up 41.1% this year. Just last month, the increase was predicted to be 20%.

And the average prices conceal just how bad the situation is, with consumers paying more than a dollar per egg — over $12 a dozen — in some places.

Prices have more than doubled since before the outbreak began, costing consumers at least $1.4 billion last year, according to an estimate by agricultural economists at the University of Arkansas. Restaurants like Denny’s and Waffle House started adding surcharges to egg dishes.

Egg prices also normally increase every spring heading into Easter when demand is high.

Will the Trump plan bring down prices?

Rollins acknowledged that it will take some time before consumers see an effect at the checkout counter. It takes infected farms months to dispose of the carcasses, sanitize their farms and raise new birds. But she expressed optimism that the plan will help prices.

“It’s going to take a while to get through, I think in the next month or two, but hopefully by summer,” Rollins said.

CoBank analyst Brian Earnest said he appreciates the Trump administration’s fresh look at the problem, but “I don’t see a whole lot here that is a big change here from the current plan of action.”

Major trade groups in the egg, chicken, turkey and dairy industries largely praised the plan. American Egg Board President Emily Metz said she is encouraged the administration wants to find the best response through a combination of biosecurity and exploring vaccine development.

Will DOGE layoffs affect the bird flu fight?

Rollins said she believes the USDA has enough staff to respond to bird flu even after all the cuts to the federal workforce at the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“Will we have the resources needed to address the plan I just laid out? We are convinced that we will,” she said, “as we realign and evaluate where USDA has been spending money, where our employees are spending their time.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the new plan is an important step, but USDA needs to confirm it rehired everyone involved in the bird flu response who was mistakenly fired.

Where’s the money going?

The plan calls for $500 million investment to help farmers bolster biosecurity measures, $400 million in additional aid for farmers whose flocks have been impacted by avian flu, $100 million to research and potentially develop vaccines and therapeutics for U.S. chicken flocks and explore rolling back what the administration sees as restrictive animal welfare rules in some states like California’s cage-free requirement approved by voters.

The USDA has already paid farmers roughly $1.2 billion for the birds they had to slaughter. The additional aid will continue going to those payments and help farmers bring in new flocks more quickly.

The administration is in talks to import about 70-100 million eggs from abroad in the coming months, Rollins said. But there were 7.57 billion table eggs produced last month, so those imports don’t appear likely to make a significant difference in the market.

Trump administration officials have suggested that vaccines might help reduce the number of birds that have to be slaughtered when there is an outbreak. However, no vaccines have been fully approved for widespread use in poultry, and the industry has said the current prototypes aren’t practical because they require individual shots for each bird. Plus, vaccinated birds could jeopardize exports.

The virus is moving through cows, infecting humans, and proving harder to contain than expected.

Stacey Leasca

Wed, February 26, 2025 at 2:01 AM PST

On February 19, Tulane University reported that a new variant of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, also known as bird flu, was found in cows and a dairy worker. But that’s not the only bad news. Scientists have also detected bird flu in three veterinarians working with cattle, which may signal a change in the way the virus is spreading.

According to the university, three veterinarians working with cattle have tested positive for bird flu without presenting any symptoms. In a separate statement, the American Veterinary Medical Association said a study found that “Among 150 practitioners tested, three had evidence of recent infection with H5N1, including two who hadn’t been exposed to animals confirmed or suspected to have H5N1 infections.” One of those infected vets didn’t even practice in a state with a confirmed H5N1 case.

Sarah Michaels, an infectious disease expert at Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, says this study and others could indicate that the virus is far more widespread than we thought.

Related: Is It Safe to Eat Eggs During a Bird Flu Outbreak? Here’s What to Know

“It will be difficult to contain,” Michaels said. “Recent screenings and the national milk testing program have shown that bird flu has spilled over from wild birds to cattle more than once. And this report of infections in three veterinarians highlights the importance of rapidly identifying infected dairy cattle, continued testing of bulk milk, and monitoring human infections among those at increased risk.”

As for the new strain, it’s known as the D1.1 variant, which Tulane explained had only been previously found in wild birds and some domestic poultry. However, now, it’s not only been found in cattle but also in a Nevada dairy worker, marking the third known human case involving the variant. This follows two other high-profile cases with D1.1, including the death of a Louisiana farmer who contracted it from his backyard flock and a teenager in Canada who was hospitalized but later recovered. And now that that are two types of the virus out there, experts say it will be hard to both track and contain the spread.

“It’s endemic in cows now. There is no way this is going to get contained,” Seema Lakdawala, an influenza virologist and co-director of the Center for Transmission of Airborne Pathogens at Emory School of Medicine, shared with The Guardian.https://www.youtube.com/embed/gg3dyP_7Ycc

Adding fuel to the fire is the absolutely rampant spread of the flu in humans this winter. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that there have been “at least 33 million illnesses, 430,000 hospitalizations, and 19,000 deaths from flu so far this season,” marking one of the worst flu seasons in over a decade.

“There’s a lot of flu going around, and so the potential for the virus to reassort right now is high,” Lakdawala additionally told The Guardian, noting there is the possibility of “reassortment” in animals.

While all this is really great, things could be worse than we know, as the Trump administration has halted communication with the World Health Organization, which is no longer receiving updates on either human flu or avian influenza. The administration has also halted the CDC’s weekly report on bird flu.

Bird Flu Fast Facts

Current human cases in the U.S.: 70
Deaths: 1
States with confirmed cases in animals or humans: 13
Sates with outbreaks in cattle: 16
Number of birds affected in last 30 days: 18.91 million

“There’s no way Americans can protect themselves from bird flu unless the Trump administration stops recklessly withholding the latest information on where and how it’s spreading,” Hannah Connor, deputy environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity, shared in a letter co-signed by 28 public interest groups. “The most effective way to slow an outbreak of this magnitude is to routinely keep us all well informed. The Trump administration’s withholding of those details puts us at the mercy of the virus.”

As for what you can do to protect yourself, Michaels noted that “Eggs and meat should be cooked thoroughly, and people should refrain from drinking raw milk.” Emily Landon, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Chicago Medicine, echoed this sentiment in her own university’s statement, noting that while the risk to humans remains is low, it’s still important to stay vigilant. “The highest risk to most people would be through contaminated dairy products,” Landon noted. So, for now, it’s best to avoid raw milk and unpasteurized cheese. This also goes for your pets.

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As always, you should avoid contact with infected animals and wash your hands frequently if you do come in contact with any farm animals. The CDC also noted if you do consume meat, you need to cook it at proper temperatures — including cooking poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165˚F — to effectively kill any viruses.

Related: Egg Prices Skyrocket as Avian Flu and New Cage-Free Laws Reshape the Industry

And all the experts agreed that if you haven’t received a flu shot this year, you should consider getting one for yourself or the kids in your life.

“Many cases are among children, and fewer children are getting vaccinated against the flu compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Michaels added. “It’s not too late to get a flu shot, and while it won’t protect against bird flu, it does provide important protection against seasonal influenza.