Where Are The Eggs? - Bird Flu
Where have all the eggs gone? And why are they so expensive? Along with the fact that chickens lay fewer eggs in the winter, production is also down because of H5N1, bird flu. Heres what you should know about Bird Flu...understanding that with any virus or disease, things can change day by day. Remember Covid? The good news is we are not in a Covid mode but information is still key.
H5N1 is not a new (aka: novel) virus like Covid. It was noted in wild birds 23 years ago and in 2021 we saw a variant start to spread in domestic birds, poultry and mammals. In 2024 we found it in cows in the US and Scientists started to get a little worried because flu doesn't usually spread in cows. So where are we now? According to Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, my favorite public health physician:
10,922 wild birds
917 dairy herds
130,674,361 chickens. (no wonder there is an egg shortage)
According to the CDC, 74 humans have contracted bird flu, mostly farmers and people directly in contact with sick dairy cows or poultry. There are a couple of cases that have no known source of infection but there has been no spead to household contacts. The probablility of a pandemic is low but the consequences are huge. Scientists are worried about the possibility for gene swap with regular flu, new mutations and the USDA underfunding to investigate and stop spread.
What can you do? Don't drink unpasteurized milk. Don't touch wild birds and stay away from sick livestock animals and chickens. You don't need to worry about your bird feeders (unlelss you also raise chickens) or eating eggs. Chicken and eggs are safe to eat as long as you store and cook them properly. Don't be like "Rocky" and eat raw eggs.
Speaking of eggs. I want to put in a plug for pasture-raised eggs from happy chickens. Vital Farms pasture raised eggs have a QR code on the carton that shows a live feed of the chickens happily pecking on the ground. This is what I like to see and the egg yokes are deep yellow-orange, another sign of healthy organic eating by the chicken.
HAPPY NEW YEAR. If there are any topics you would like to see covered in 2025, comment below and thanks from EverythingHealth.
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