USDA vows another $1B coming to help fight bird flu

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts the current record prices for eggs could soar more than 40 percent this year as the Trump administration offered the first new details Wednesday about its plan to battle bird flu.

With an emphasis on tightening biosecurity on farms, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA will invest another $1 billion on top of the roughly $2 billion it has already spent battling bird flu since the latest outbreak began in 2022. Officials had hinted at the plan earlier this month.

But it's not clear how much more farmers can do to keep the virus out. Egg and poultry farmers already have been working to protect their birds ever since the 2015 bird flu outbreak by taking measures like requiring workers to change clothes and shower before entering barns, using separate sets of tools and sanitizing vehicles that enter farms. The challenge is the virus is spread easily by wild birds as they migrate.

The main reason egg prices have soared to hit a record average of $4.95 per dozen this month is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the spread of the virus after cases are found — with most of those being egg-laying chickens. Last month was the worst yet for egg farmers with nearly 19 million egg-laying chickens slaughtered.

In Iowa — the nation’s top egg-producing state — about 6.7 million egg-laying chickens were destroyed just in December 2024. So far this year, four outbreaks in Iowa have been confirmed including a flock of 27,000 turkeys in Buena Vista County and 240,000 egg-laying chickens in O'Brien County.

Egg prices will get worse

The USDA now predicts egg prices will increase at least 41 percent this year on top of the already record prices. Just last month, the increase was predicted to be 20 percent.

And the average prices conceal just how bad the situation is, with consumers paying more than a dollar an egg in some places. The situation is hurting consumers and has prompted restaurants like Denny's and Waffle House to add surcharges on egg dishes.

The high egg prices, which have more than doubled since before the outbreak began, cost consumers at least $1.4 billion last year, according to an estimate done by agricultural economists at the University of Arkansas. Egg prices also normally increase every spring heading into Easter when demand is high.

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

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

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Will federal layoffs affect the fight?

Rollins said she believes USDA will have the staff it needs 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.”

The new USDA 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.

USDA already pays farmers for any birds they must slaughter due to the virus, and roughly $1.2 billion has gone to those payments. Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig said in a statement that he has been pushing since last year to increase the aid “to ensure farmers are receiving fair market rates for impacted birds.”

The administration is also in talks to import about 70 to 100 million eggs from other countries 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 approved and the industry has said the current prototypes aren't practical because they require individual shots to each bird. Plus, vaccinated birds could jeopardize exports.

“I am supportive of exploring an effective H5N1 HPAI vaccination strategy,” Naig said in his statement. “I encourage USDA to work closely with state animal health officials, farmers and industry to formulate an implementation strategy, incorporate valuable lessons learned, and minimize potential negative trade impacts.”

The National Turkey Federation said the plan Rollins outlined should help stabilize the market, but the trade group encouraged the USDA to pay attention to all egg and poultry farmers — not just egg producers.