Folks who have eggs on their shopping list ahead of Thanksgiving could be in for a rude awakening.
An egg shortage is leading to empty shelves at many grocery stores across the country. Shoppers in Pennsylvania, Chicago and Denver have been posting about it on social media — including signs limiting the amount of eggs customers can buy in some stores like Whole Foods.
There are multiple factors to blame for their local grocer’s barren egg sections. Bird flu is decimating chicken populations around the country.
According to the Wildlife Management Institute, as of Nov. 7, avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses have been found in nearly 1,200 outbreaks in 48 states since January 2022. These outbreaks have affected more than 105 million birds — including commercial poultry and backyard flocks — forcing farmers in states like Utah to euthanize hundreds of thousands of birds.
“Bird flu is by far the biggest factor affecting egg prices right now,” Bernt Nelson, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, told NBC News. “In the last couple months alone, we’ve seen about 10 million birds affected by the virus.”
Nelson also said that while there is a “strong supply” of eggs in the country, there may be “isolated pockets” where shoppers may find it hard to source them. (If that’s the case in your hometown, here’s a list of great egg substitutes for baking and cooking.)
H5N1, also known as H5 bird flu, is a strain of influenza that primarily infects birds, who contract it from other birds’ saliva, nasal secretions or feces.
But birds aren’t the only animals that can be infected by the virus. On Nov. 24, the California Department of Public Health announced that bird flu has been found in a batch of raw milk, leading to Fresno’s Raw Farm, LLC to issue a recall at the state’s request.
Birds, cattle and, in rare cases, humans can contract H5N1. There have been 29 human cases of bird flu in California this year — including in a child — though none are linked to raw milk.
And while holiday grocery shopping has contributed to the shortage, the rising cost of eggs correlates with outbreaks of bird flu — as it has in the past.
For years, the price of eggs hovered around $2 until after January 2022, which is the last time a dozen eggs were ever that cheap. In the third quarter of 2024, the average price of a dozen large grade A eggs was $3.36, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data. This is up nearly 20% from the previous quarter, which had a dozen eggs at $2.75.
Even with the shortages, Thanksgiving dinner staples are collectively at their cheapest (after adjusting for inflation) in almost 40 years other than 2020, according to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation.
