The Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that as egg prices reach record highs, the federal government is considering importing more eggs from other countries and increasing funding for efforts to resist bird flu.
The measures announced by the Secretary’s secretary, Brooke L. Rollins, in multiple news appearances, do not appear to deviate significantly from the Biden administration’s approach, and its effectiveness remains to be seen.
Ms Rollins said the U.S. is negotiating with several countries to immediately use imported eggs as a short-term solution, even if the department provides few details. Ms. Rollins wrote in an opinion paper published in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the department will also provide as much as $1 billion in additional funding.
This includes allocating up to $500 million to egg producers to enhance disease prevention measures, economic relief to farmers whose flocks are affected by the flu, and an impact of $100 million on the development of vaccines and therapeutic agents.
The Ministry of Agriculture also said it will aim to minimize the elimination of flocks affected by the flu and speed up the replacement process.
The Trump administration has made it clear that the soaring eggs are a top priority. “Eggs are a disaster,” President Trump said at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Even though Ms. Rollins heralds efforts, she warned that consumers should expect egg prices to fall early on Easter as demand usually increases. She said she hopes their costs can be reduced to summer.
The bird flu outbreak, which started in the United States in 2022, is the main factor in the high price of eggs, but is not the only egg. Under existing federal policies, an infected bird may need to eliminate a portion or entire flock. And, because areas of infected birds must be disinfected and isolated, and re-epening the flock takes time, production can be stopped for several months.
The impact of additional imports on supply and price depends on size. A spokesperson for an agent spokesman at a press conference described the measure as temporary and freshman, refusing to estimate how many eggs will be imported.
Bruce Babcock, an agricultural economist and professor at the University of California, Riverside, said the United States will need to import large quantities of eggs to lower prices.
“If you really want to lower prices and use imports to achieve this, you need to bring more like a billion eggs,” he said.
Türkiye’s Central Alliance of Egg Producers recently announced it will export 420 million eggs to the United States this year. According to the latest estimates from the agricultural sector, this is equivalent to about half of the number of eggs produced in the United States.
If foreign countries do not prepare to export eggs, purchasing from overseas can also be challenging. “When another country expands its output and exports to the United States, it’s hoped that bird flu will stop its destruction in the market, and importing eggs will make no sense anymore,” Mr. Babcock said.
Other measures taken by the department are based on steps taken under the Biden administration, which began evaluating biosafety programs at poultry facilities in 2023, paying producers hundreds of millions of dollars to collect sheep and exploring vaccination.
The $1 billion funding will come from the agency’s credit commodity companies, a can of money the Biden administration also used to fight avian flu, a department spokesman said Wednesday.
Under these projects, wildlife technicians visited the farm to identify biosecurity issues such as gaps in fences or stand-up water that may attract wild birds and animals. Ministry of Agriculture officials described the projects as very successful and said the agency will expand these audits for the first time and cover up 75% of the cost of solving identified problems.
Scientists praised biosafety enhancement and additional funding for vaccine research, but warned that any plan should include strong surveillance.
Poultry vaccines are already in use in certain countries and many scientists support them. However, in the United States, they have not been used as a massive containment measure, partly due to concerns that vaccines will endanger U.S. exports.
Experts also pointed out that the overall plan has little to say about the bird flu contained in cattle. Now, the disease has reached nearly 1,000 groups in 17 states. Recently, the herd was infected with a new version of the virus that caused serious symptoms in several people and the only bird flu death in the United States.
“Part of the reason why eggs are expensive is actually what’s happening with cows,” said Anice C. Lowen, an influenza virologist at Emory University.
Emily Anthes,,,,, Apoorva Mandavilli and Danielle Kaye Reports from New York.
