Bird flu scrambled Western Washington egg market for the holidays, and good luck finding eggnog

If you’ve visited your neighborhood grocery store in Western Washington over the holiday season, you might have noticed the variety of eggs was lacking, as well as higher prices for the options that remained.

That’s in large part because of a nationwide outbreak of bird flu that has led to the culling of 6.5 million egg-laying hens nationwide, including 2.5 million in California, one of the nation’s top-10 egg-producing states.

“It’s been rough. It’s been rough for a long time,” said Ricky Volpe, a professor of agribusiness at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. “The avian flu has really affected the whole chicken and egg-laying hen supply line.”

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According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average retail cost for a dozen eggs in November 2024 was $3.65. That’s up 8.2% from October. That’s a high average, but it’s not quite a record. The all-time record for egg prices was January 2023, when the average dozen was going for $4.83.

It’s worth noting that those base prices are often significantly less than prices you’ll find for organic or free-range eggs, and that lower-priced eggs are often the first variety sold out of neighborhood stores.

Volpe has been watching egg prices fluctuate wildly since late 2022 when the latest avian flu outbreak started to pick up. Back in 2022, a massive bird flu outbreak at a Washington egg-laying operation — with more than one million chickens — delivered a massive hit to the industry.

Volpe said he expects egg prices will return to normal relatively quickly when the outbreak subsides. But when exactly that will happen is anybody’s guess.

“We haven't seen the outbreaks in the major egg producing states calm down long enough for the inventory of egg laying hens to be replenished and brought back up to the U.S. population demand level,” Volpe said.

Meanwhile, avian flu is impacting more than egg prices. In it's most recent report on H5N1 bird flu, the CDC said the disease "is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows with several human cases in U.S. dairy and poultry workers."

Recently, a house cat reportedly died in Oregon after eating pet food that was infected, leading to the recall of certain turkey-based frozen pet food from Northwest Naturals.

Officials with the Washington State Department of Agriculture were not available to speak to the avian flu impact on Washington farms. Communications Administrator Daniel Schafer did say via email that Washington hasn’t had “a major avian influenza event at a commercial egg producing facility since October.”

RELATED: Bird flu has killed 20 big cats including cougars at wildlife sanctuary in Washington

That said, the state has reported six instances of bird flu in backyard flocks in Washington state since that commercial outbreak in Franklin County, one each in Whatcom, Snohomish, Okanogan, Stevens, Lewis, and Kitsap counties.

If you’re frustrated not being able to find affordable eggs or perhaps your go-to type of egg, Volpe said it’s even worse when it comes to traditional eggnog.

“Eggnog is virtually impossible to find,” he said. “It’s not viewed as a cost-effective way to use eggs, to make eggnog in the old-fashioned way. So, it’s been a very, very significant impact.”