Sophomore Aina Arnquist didn’t think much about her grocery trip — until she reached the refrigerated aisle. She scanned the shelves at Trader Joe’s, expecting to grab her usual dozen eggs, but the section was empty.
“I always eat eggs for lunch and breakfast because I’m a vegetarian athlete and need my protein,” Arnquist said. “And one day, my parents went to Trader Joes, and there were no eggs. Then, they went to our local grocery store — also no eggs. Then, they had to go to Whole Foods, where the eggs were priced at $12 (per dozen). That’s $1 per egg.”
An ongoing nationwide avian influenza outbreak that has intensified recently has caused the prices of eggs to rise significantly. In the past year alone, egg prices have risen by 53%.
Forms of avian influenza have been documented since the 1970s, but the current strains affecting agriculture and consumer prices emerged in 2022. Dean Blumberg, Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, said the virus is transmitted through farm animals, including chickens and cows.
“The bird flu strains that we’re concerned about are ones that are called H5N1,” Blumberg said. “The wild birds (with H5N1) in the US have been infecting cattle and commercial poultry flocks through their feces and in urine.”
Bird flu was named because of its danger to birds, according to agricultural economist Daniel Sumner.
“It is not unlike COVID in the sense that it’s the disease that spreads very rapidly, and they call the disease highly pathogenic, which means it’s deadly,” Sumner said.
Not much is understood about the transmission of avian influenza between humans, but Blumberg said there have been confirmed cases in humans, mostly among those who work closely with cows or chickens.
“There’s been about 70 cases that have been found among sick people in the U.S., and they’re just starting to do some more surveillance studies to see if asymptomatic transmission is occurring among humans,” Blumberg said.
Blumberg also said proposed funding cuts under the Trump administration may weaken the government’s ability to effectively mitigate and respond to the outbreak.
“I’m certainly concerned about what I’ve heard about the funding cuts,” Blumberg said. “We rely on the Center for Disease Control for surveillance and for information about the extent of transmission in communities and among animals.
Sumner said when a single bird in a flock contracts avian influenza, farmers often euthanize other members in the flock — up to hundreds of thousands of birds at a time — to prevent further spread.
Dairy farmers are also being impacted. Sumner said when cows contract the virus, they survive, but produce milk at much lower levels, which impacts profit levels.
“Dairy farms have really taken a hit because the price (of milk) hasn’t gone up … and their costs have gone up,” Sumner said. “Cows that are severely affected by the bird flu, their milk production went down to 70%. (They will) keep her in the herd because she’s going to come back, but during that period, (they are) losing money on her.”
Since the rising costs of milk production aren’t being passed on to consumers, Sumner said the dairy industry has taken a hit financially.
“The effect on the overall economy is serious but moderate,” Sumner said. “We all like to eat eggs. t’s not a big part of anybody’s budget. Let’s say you used to spend 100 bucks on eggs. Now you spend 200 bucks. It’s noticeable, but it’s not a lot of money.”
Although there are economic issues, Blumberg said the virus also has the capability of mutating and becoming a public health concern.
“Right now, there’s very little risk among transmission in general,” Blumberg said. “And the concern would be that if the virus evolves, if it mutates and develops more efficient transmission to humans. That’s what could break out more in the general population, and that’s where it could cause even the next pandemic. That would be very concerning. And obviously that happened a lot with COVID.”
Blumberg said it’s important to spread awareness and implement mitigation measures before the virus mutates and spreads further.
“I would hope that those who are in charge would prioritize transparency and making the information available as well as prioritizing something as important to this that has the potential to cause a pandemic to make sure that we have appropriate resources dedicated to monitoring and researching,” Blumberg said.
Although mitigation measures might reduce the spread and mutation of avian influenza, Arnquist said she worries about another public health emergency under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, who has historically opposed the use of vaccines.
“Because of the lack of support for vaccines in our current administration, it could cause more people to get the illness and the illness to spread quicker, and it could prevent immunocompromised people, and others, from getting life-saving medication,” Arnquist said. “The bird flu epidemic is really something we should be more concerned about, and we should be making an effort to limit its spread.”
