Bird Flu Outbreak At Texas Egg Processing Facility Could Hike Prices
Bird flu is also impacting dairy farms.
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Bird flu has hit a Cal-Maine Foods egg farm in Parmer County, Texas, and the impact could hike the price of eggs at the grocery store.
A chicken tested positive for bird flu, "resulting in depopulation of approximately 1.6 million laying hens and 337,000 pullets," which is 3.6 percent of the company's total flock, according to a company statement. Unfortunately, bird flu is very contagious when it infects a flock and often deadly for chickens.
While "Cal-Maine Foods is working to secure production from other facilities to minimize disruption to its customers," the loss of this many layers might impact egg prices at the supermarket, according to a report from NPR.
"Any time you have an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a large poultry producer like this, it has the potential to impact the market, because you're taking a large number of egg-laying birds out of production all at once," Amy Hagerman, associate professor of agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University, told NPR.
Bird flu is carried by wild aquatic birds like ducks, which don't always get sick from the disease, the CDC explains. However, it can wreak havoc when spread to domestic animals.
In the past couple of weeks, the USDA has detected the disease in dairy herds in Ohio, New Mexico, Kansas, Idaho, Texas, and Michigan. A person who was in contact with dairy cattle also contracted the disease recently. Animal-to-human transmission is extremely rare, and this was the first case in two years, the CDC says. Fortunately, the infected person had mild symptoms.
Though the bird flu's jump to dairy cattle sounds alarming, we're relieved to report it shouldn't have much impact on dairy products.
"The good news is this is not a serious problem," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told NPR. "It's not going to bankrupt anybody. Cows basically have the flu for a week, and they get over it."
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