Bell Bird Control is very concerned about the spread of Avian Flu (called highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) or simply bird flu in all of its forms: H5N1 D1.1 genotype, H5N1 B3.13 genotype, Avian Metapneumovirus (aMPV), and H5N9) in the US.

Bell Bird Control is tracking the news closely and notes that encounters with birds and their droppings are suspected disease vectors. The bird flu outbreak has affected wild bird populations, which then in turn intermingle with farm animals, wild mammals, and poultry farms. The results have been infected cows, flu found in raw milk and dairy, the spread of illness and subsequent culling of chickens, egg-laying hens, and ducks. Wild fowl, large cats, and domestic cats have all gotten ill.

During this outbreak of HPAI, there has been transmission to 70 people in the US causing 1 fatality. Scientists are concerned about the flu morphing and evolving to allow human to human transmission.

We will track news and provide hyperlinks so you can read the updates from these local and national news sites, government resources, and public health experts.

Food prices are affected with general production of eggs hampered and birds as a source of protein being affected. A good question is why the bird flu’s impact on chicken prices has been relatively compared to egg prices which jumped significantly?

What's affected first - the chicken or the egg? In this case: the egg! Bird flu hits egg prices more immediately and substantially because egg-laying hens take longer to replace than broiler chickens for meat. Farmers note that it takes 6-8 weeks for chickens to reach their slaughter weight.

Whereas hens take 18 weeks for a chicken to start laying eggs. Hens lay about 5 eggs per week over the next 120 weeks before these chickens are sent to the happy pecking grounds.

In sum, egg supply declines last longer, while demand stays high. Chicken meat production has the ability to bounce back faster with shorter maturity cycles.

On February 10, 2025 CNN reported, “Egg prices have soared recently because of the avian influenza, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 40 million egg-laying birds last year. Due to the short supply, egg prices rose 14% from November to December alone — and they are projected to rise another 20% this year, according to the US Department of Agriculture.”

The United States is in talks with several countries in an effort to immediately secure new supplies as a short-term solution to the Avian Flu caused egg crisis. The US Department of Agriculture will also provide up to $1 billion in additional funding, The USDA secretary wrote in an opinion essay published on February 26, 2025in The Wall Street Journal.

That includes distributing up to $500 million to egg producers to enhance disease prevention measures, $400 million in financial relief to farmers whose flocks are affected by the flu and $100 million toward research and development for vaccines and therapeutics.

CDC finds vets working with dairy cattle unknowingly exposed to H5N1 avian flu.

In other developments, the US Centers for Disease Control, finally issued an update on Avian flu to its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), which showed that some veterinarians working with cattle were unknowingly infected with the H5N1 (avian flu) virus last year.

The report is the latest to indicate that the outbreak in dairy cattle is spreading further under the wire. The CDC report was one of several MMWR reports on avian flu that were to have been released three weeks ago. 

In other report published this week, the CDC cited new USDA data on the rapid spread of H5N1 bird flu in poultry, showing some 157 million birds have so far been affected, since the first detections in 2022. The outbreak has caught the attention of the US public as the price of eggs soars to a 50-year high.