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A brief history of egg prices

Eggs are expensive again this Christmas. Why? The usual reason: bird flu. This year marks the seventh major avian flu pandemic since 1980.

Poultry is a global market, so even pandemics outside the US can affect egg prices here. The biggest impact, however, comes from local avian flu outbreaks, as happened before in 1983, 2015, and 2022.

11 thoughts on “A brief history of egg prices

    1. akapneogy

      History might record that the world's oldest modern democracy became an autocracy because of dissatisfaction over the price of eggs.

  1. Atticus

    Liberals really like to amplify the impact price of eggs had on the election. There was no “hysteria” and no one cast a vote mainly on the cost of eggs.

    1. Yehouda

      In case you really missed the point, "price of eggs" is a a stand-in for the various dumb reasons that various voters gave for not voting for Harris. In most cases, prople that use this term believe that the dumb reason is actually a cover-up for the real reason (mostly believed to be misogyny and/or racism).

  2. D_Ohrk_E1

    This bout with HPAI H5N1 is a bit different. One of your favorite virologists:

    “We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “I don’t know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.” - KFF News

    H5N1 has a nearly 100% avian fatality rate and 30-50% human fatality rate. See: NETEC

    Just a few days ago, the NYT reported about a breakout of H5N1 at a wildlife sanctuary in Washington State, resulting in the deaths of 20 big cats. Separately, a day ago there was a recall of raw cat food tied to H5N1-infected turkeys, because a cat died.

    And earlier this month, Scripps researchers published a paper identifying a single mutation that would enable easier infections of humans and therefore possibly trigger human-to-human transfer.

    I think we will be lucky in 2025 if we don't have a major H5N1 pandemic.

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