Bird flu spread across more than a dozen U.S. states. One effect: Higher egg prices. There have been no new outbreaks reported since December 2022.

As the holidays approached in December, egg prices skyrocketed. Much of the increase was blamed on large outbreaks of avian flu. Because of the disease, more than 40 million chickens were killed to ensure the disease didn’t spread any further, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But the U.S. has had no reported outbreaks of avian flu since December. In turn, that means the size of the nation’s flock of chickens has steadily increased, according to the USDA. That also means egg prices are dropping. 

In June, the average price was about $1.23 — about 80% cheaper than the highest price in 2022, according to the USDA. 

Type of work:

News Article Article pages that do not meet specifications for other Trust Project Type of Work labels and also do not fit within the general news category.

Sky Chadde has covered the agriculture industry for Investigate Midwest since 2019 and spent much of 2020 focused on the crisis of COVID-19 in meatpacking plants, which included collecting and analyzing...