As highly contagious and deadly bird flu devastates U.S. poultry populations, egg prices are rising.
Consumers are spending more money for eggs, and a health expert has explained why that won't change anytime soon.
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“Egg inflation” is causing consumers to pay increasingly high prices for kitchen staples.
On average, eggs cost consumers less than $2 per dozen from March 2016 to the beginning of 2022.
Prices then more than doubled until reaching a record high of $4.82 in January 2023.
Egg prices have fallen since then but rose again in August last year due to chicken losses and reduced supply.
Prices fell again as flocks were rehoused, but the 2024 holiday season brought another rise in egg costs.
The cost of a dozen eggs rose nearly 38% from fall 2023 to fall 2024, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some US states are spending ridiculous amounts of money to buy basic foodstuffs due to “egg inflation.”
Eggs in Hawaii cost about $10, with an average cost per dozen of $9.73.
Egg prices by state
The average egg price for ten eggs by state is as follows:
- Hawaii: $9.73
- Florida: $6.36
- Alabama: $6.12
- Nevada: $6.07
- California: $6.05
- Arizona: $6.03
- Georgia: $5.96
- Maine: $5.84
- Wyoming: $5.84
- Colorado: $5.77
- South Carolina: $5.76
- Vermont: $5.70
- Utah: $5.67
- New Mexico: $5.65
- Tennessee: $5.61
- North Carolina: $5.60
- Louisiana: $5.59
- Connecticut: $5.54
- Montana: $5.46
- Texas: $5.43
- New York: $5.37
- Minnesota: $5.10
- Rhode Island: $5.10
- Idaho: $5.09
- New Jersey: $5.05
- Massachusetts: $5.04
- Mississippi: $5.04
- South Dakota: $5.00
- Virginia: $4.96
- Arkansas: $4.95
- Oklahoma: $4.92
- New Hampshire: $4.91
- Washington: $4.91
- North Dakota: $4.83
- Illinois: $4.82
- Michigan: $4.82
- Oregon: $4.81
- Delaware: $4.79
- Maryland: $4.78
- Wisconsin: $4.78
- West Virginia: $4.64
- Alaska: $4.61
- Pennsylvania: $4.52
- Kentucky: $4.51
- Iowa: $4.44
- KS: $4.41
- Ohio: $4.39
- Indiana: $4.33
- Nebraska: $4.25
- Missouri: $4.24
Source: World Population Review
On average, Floridians pay the second highest price for eggs at $6.36 per dozen.
Alabama, Nevada and California are also affected by high egg costs, with the average price of eggs being $6.12, $6.07 and $6.05, respectively.
Rampant disease
While the pandemic and general inflation have played a role in the rising cost of eggs, the biggest factor at play is the bird flu outbreak.
Also known as avian influenza, avian influenza is a disease caused by a virus that mostly infects birds.
H5N1, a specific strain of bird flu, began infecting U.S. poultry populations in February 2022, with the potential to wipe out entire flocks in just 48 hours.
The disease quickly evolved into the largest bird flu outbreak in the country's history, and has since affected more than 130 million American birds, according to the USDA.
To delve deeper into the avian influenza outbreak and subsequent egg crisis, The US Sun spoke exclusively with Dr. Jim Kane, director of veterinary science at the Center for Human Economics and former research scientist with the USDA.
The health expert explained how the current H5N1 strain emerged as a new strain of bird flu in China in the late 1990s and slowly spread across multiple continents, killing about 500 million chickens worldwide, before making its way to the United States in 2022.
The virus originated from infected migratory waterfowl, and has since “spread like wildfire” among poultry and wild birds, causing “serious economic, veterinary, nutritional and public health concerns,” according to Dr. Kane.
So far, the USDA has spent about $1.7 billion trying to control bird flu outbreaks in poultry, making it “the most expensive animal disease outbreak in U.S. history,” the expert said.
It is not surprising that there is an egg shortage and consequent high egg prices. “There is simply a mismatch between supply and demand, which leads to higher prices.”
Dr. Jim Kane
Despite the enormous amount of money spent trying to curb the virus, Dr. Kane feels as if the USDA's efforts have “completely failed.”
“The saddest thing is that the virus is still spreading uncontrollably and unabated in poultry, dairy cows and wildlife even after all the previous deaths, culls, quarantines and expenses,” the expert said.
“I believe that the US H5N1 avian influenza virus is now endemic, or has made itself permanently at home here, in the United States, such that HPAI is no longer a foreign animal disease – just as the virus previously made itself at home across Asia, Africa, and Europe.” .
“This virus is here to stay. I just hope that the virus is contained in humans or at least does not become too dangerous in humans.”
Future egg prices
As the virus spread widely, egg production was subsequently affected leading to inflated egg prices.
With more than 100 million chickens killed from 2022 to 2024 due to bird flu, and millions of laying hens killed weekly in 2025, Dr Keane claimed that “the bird flu epidemic is getting worse, not better”.
“It is not surprising that there is a shortage of eggs and the resulting rise in egg prices,” the expert said. “There is simply a mismatch between supply and demand, causing prices to rise.”
Dr. Kane also addressed how recovery from a depleted poultry flock is a long process.
The expert explained that once the farm is depopulated due to the virus, the buildings must be cleaned, disinfected, evacuated and tested over time to ensure that bird flu is completely eliminated from the building.
He added that the sheer size of typical U.S. commercial egg production farms, which house more than 1 million laying hens, plays a role in the long time it takes to control a bird flu outbreak.
“There is always a delay in addressing the shortage of egg supplies due to control efforts, the restocking of poultry farms with new birds, and the timing of the hens reaching egg-laying age,” Dr. Kane explained.
Given the rampant nature of bird flu, the expert predicted that egg prices would not return to normal levels any time soon.
“I expect it will take several minutes for the egg shortage to be addressed and egg prices to fall,” he said.
“Avian influenza may again cause egg shortages in the fall and winter of 2024 to 2025 when avian influenza is at its seasonal peak in the fall.”
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