Bird flu is sweeping through egg-laying chickens in the United States at an unprecedented rate.

So far in 2025, 30 million layers, as they’re known, have been culled, close to the 38 million killed throughout all of last year. That means nearly 10 percent of our annual number of egg-layers have been wiped out.

But as I report for The New Republic, there may be other factors at play when it comes to egg prices.

Few people seem to doubt that bird flu is playing some role in current prices. Food economists say we’re currently seeing a classic example of what happens when an inelastic product, or something that people typically buy no matter the price, becomes scarce and retailers begin bidding against each other to keep their shelves full.

“I’m going to bid more than Aldi or Trader Joe’s is going to bid, because I have to buy those eggs,” is the way Jada Thompson, an associate professor in agricultural economics at the University of Arkansas, described the mindset.

It’s also clear that some egg producers have been devastated by the culls.

But the producers still able to sell eggs are experiencing a boom.

Cal-Maine Foods, the largest egg producer in the country—and the only one publishing financial information, because it’s publicly traded—reported in January that net sales nearly doubled in a year, jumping up to $954.7 million in the quarter ending November 30, from $523.2 million at the same time the previous year.  And that was months ago, before prices went this high.

The U.S. Department of Justice is now opening an investigation into egg producers’ practices.

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But perhaps the bigger problem is that some of these companies may not be investing profits from the current crisis in the precautions that would slow bird flu’s spread and reduce egg-price instability in the future.

“How many billions are we going to keep throwing after this virus without trying to figure out a way to take this virus off the table as a public health and agricultural threat?” asked Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.

One option for safeguarding farms against future outbreaks would be to break them up—creating smaller operations that make outbreaks less devastating. Farms could also employ more workers and invest in more equipment. And poultry vaccines are looking more and more like a good idea.

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Top photo: Roberta DePoppe