Bird flu brings up danger for some Americans’ Thanksgiving breakfast

Some Americans may be facing a serious danger related to their Thanksgiving family breakfast as grocery stores are reportedly experiencing a shortage of eggs across the country due to bird flu.

Though the egg supply seems to be stable in most areas of the country, some places are facing a dairy crisis. According to NBC news, the shortage took place as a result of increased egg prices, rationing and emptied shelves in parts of Denver, Miami and New York, reported Gizmodo.

However, the single largest reason behind the scarcity is bird flu, as per the experts’ statement.

“Bird flu is by far the biggest impactor affecting egg prices right now,” agricultural economist Bernt Nelson told NBC News. “In the last couple of months alone, we’ve seen about 10 million birds alone affected by the virus. And as we go on and the migration continues, we are always going to be watching to see what happens with avian influenza.”

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A strains of H5N1 have increasingly started to spread among wild birds and domestic poultry in the US since 2022.

H5N1 outbreaks of bird flu in poultry have been seen across 48 states during this time period.

Additionally, more recently this year, H5N1 has begun to cause large outbreaks among dairy cattle.

Though the virus is not spreading easily between people (for now, at least), there have also been human cases of H5N1 tied to these animal outbreaks.

According to the American Egg Board, the country’s overall egg stockpile is fine, however, these outbreaks have had a real impact.

Moreover, it was found by a USDA report this July that the country’s total egg production had fallen 2.6% compared to last year, which also cited bird flu as a major contributor.