Feb. 25 The Department of Agriculture released an updated food price outlook report for the year predicting that egg prices would increase 41.1% in 2025 as they continue to experience “volatile month-to-month changes” because of the ongoing bird flu outbreak—up from the 20.3% increase the USDA predicted in January.

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: Nearly 10 percent of the country’s annual number of egg-layers have been wiped out.

A lot goes into the production of eggs — and with the Trump administration’s tariff policies potentially affecting costs for chicken feed and equipment, bird flu isn’t the only reason U.S. consumers may continue to pay high prices for eggs at the grocery store.

The administration announced a five-point plan and a $1 billion investment to combat the influenza and bring egg costs down.

With record high egg prices, should the U.S. vaccinate chickens against bird flu? Any such program would be expensive and logistically difficult.

European Union wholesale egg prices have climbed to the highest level in more than a decade as bird flu outbreaks continue to roil the industry across the world.

The CDC has sequenced bird flu viruses from people in Nevada and Wyoming, and the Trump Administration has released a strategy for reducing egg prices

While egg prices have dropped some since last month, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is warning prices could start climbing yet again. "We're going into the Easter season. This is always the highest price for eggs,