Hen flu is again. Will egg costs rise because it infects an increasing number of farms?

[ad_1] It'd now be a distant reminiscence, however by the top of final winter, the common cost of a dozen eggs soared to a file excessive of $6.23. (It’s now at $3.49.)

The trigger was H5N1, a extremely pathogenic pressure of avian influenza — or bird flu — that wild birds shed close to farms as they migrate for the winter. It’s now surging once more in US poultry operations and will end in one other winter of excessive egg costs — and tens of hundreds of thousands of useless birds.

During the last two months, the virus was detected on almost 50 business poultry farms, resulting in the mass culling of seven.3 million farmed birds — greater than throughout the identical interval in earlier years. Three-quarters of these birds had been egg-laying hens from simply three egg manufacturing facility farms.

<img alt="Over 7 million farmed birds have already been killed" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/RSDds-over-7-million-farmed-birds-have-already-been-killed-as-a-result-of-bird-flu-this-fall-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Though that culling entails an unlimited quantity of animal struggling, the deaths symbolize lower than 2 p.c of US egg-laying hens, which, for now, isn’t sufficient to meaningfully have an effect on egg costs.

However given the early wave of mortality throughout a variety of species in comparison with the final couple years, the sheer variety of farms which have reported outbreaks, and the truth that a newer bird flu variant has change into dominant, it “doesn’t bode nicely for a quiet yr” for the virus, Krysten Schuler — an affiliate analysis professor of public and ecosystem well being at Cornell College — advised me in an e mail.

For almost 4 years, hen flu has wreaked havoc on the US poultry trade and the birds themselves. Federal policy requires that as quickly because the virus is detected on a farm, your complete flock have to be killed to gradual the unfold of the illness. To date, poultry farms have killed greater than 180 million birds because the begin of the outbreak in early 2022. And the prevailing technique of killing is grim: Producers shut barn vents and pump in warmth to boost the temperature, which slowly — and painfully — kills the birds by way of heat stroke over a number of hours.

The virus has additionally spilled over to contaminate hundreds of other bird species and mammals , together with dairy cows , foxes, bears, seals, and pet cats . Seventy human circumstances have been reported within the US, together with one death . Scientists are more and more fearful that the virus may evolve into the next human pandemic .

And it’s been a expensive illness. The federal government has spent billions to handle it, together with compensating egg and dairy producers for his or her losses, whereas shoppers have spent an extra $14.5 billion on eggs in 2024 and 2025 alone, based on one estimate.

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By means of all of it, the egg, rooster, and turkey industries have relied on enhancing biosecurity on farms — like sealing barn openings and disinfecting autos and tools — in an effort to maintain the virus out and killing contaminated flocks when that doesn’t work.

A number of efficient hen flu vaccines to be used in poultry birds have been licensed within the US, which you’d assume can be a no brainer answer to the outbreak. However they’ve but to be deployed, as a result of they’d disrupt worldwide commerce for the rooster meat trade.

However now, the egg and turkey sectors — that are disproportionately affected by hen flu — try to vary that and are pushing for the US Department of Agriculture to advance a vaccination program.

Earlier this yr, the commerce group United Egg Producers wrote in a report despatched to the USDA that the strategy of killing birds and beefing up biosecurity is “not sufficient to stop and management this devastating illness” and that “it's time for a brand new strategy.”

The egg trade’s hen flu vaccine plan — and why it hasn’t moved ahead

To mitigate the influence of the virus, the egg and turkey industries wouldn’t must vaccinate all of their 300 million hens or 200 million turkeys. As an alternative, they'd concentrate on farms positioned within the four major flyways the place wild birds migrate and shed the virus, which is the place farms have been hardest hit by hen flu.

Whereas many egg and turkey producers are keen to start out vaccination packages, the US doesn’t allow them to over issues that it could influence the rooster meat trade’s backside line.

Final yr, rooster meat corporations exported 14 percent of their product, which is valued at $4.7 billion . However a lot of the nations that import American rooster meat would pause those imports if any farmed birds within the US are vaccinated, even when no chickens raised for meat are vaccinated.

The explanation behind these blanket bans stems from importing nations’ issues across the so-called “DIVA” drawback, which is brief for “differentiating contaminated from vaccinated animals.” It represents the problem of figuring out whether or not a poultry hen is contaminated with hen flu or just has avian influenza antibodies from vaccination.

That’s led the rooster meat trade, for now, to firmly oppose vaccination of any poultry birds within the US. “Till now we have written assurances and commerce protections in place with our buying and selling companions, we are going to proceed to oppose vaccination for Extremely Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI),” a spokesperson with the Nationwide Hen Council wrote in an e mail to Vox. (Shedding $4.7 billion in export worth would additionally result in an oversupply of rooster within the US, which might harm the trade’s income.)

<img alt="Dead birds being sent through a chute into a large truck" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-29-at-6.00.22%E2%80%AFPM-2.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8981723237598%2C0%2C84.20365535248%2C100&w=2400"/> In 2022, over 5 million egg-laying hens had been culled after hen flu was detected at a farm in Iowa owned by the egg large Rembrandt. Right here, the useless birds are being despatched via a chute into a big truck for disposal. Direct Motion All over the place/Open Wing Alliance/We Animals

<img alt="Bodies of birds in the bucket of a wheel loader" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/GettyImages-2242649710.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0.86092715231788%2C100%2C98.278145695364&w=2400"/> Our bodies of cranes that presumably died of hen flu are seen within the bucket of a wheel loader transporting them over a discipline close to Linum, japanese Germany, on October 24, 2025. Ralf Hirschberger/AFP by way of Getty Photos

However experts say this concern from buying and selling companions could be overcome via elevated illness surveillance mixed with testing.

Regardless of the persistent, ongoing unfold of hen flu within the US, different nations are in a position to proceed safely importing US poultry merchandise by quickly suspending imports from sure areas — normally a state or county — actively experiencing an outbreak. The USDA surveils the affected space for hen flu and exams birds till the virus is not detected and commerce resumes as soon as the US has confirmed that exports are secure.

“It will be the identical strategy right here with the vaccination technique,” John Clifford, a former USDA chief veterinary officer and present adviser to the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, advised me. The US would present buying and selling companions “how the US would nonetheless defend them, and we might not be transport them any merchandise that may be unsafe.”

There’s precedent for this strategy. Since late 2023, France has been vaccinating geese in opposition to the hen flu, which has confirmed to be highly effective . However in response, the US and Canada banned poultry imports from France, which the nations lifted early this yr after French authorities “succeeded in convincing the American and Canadian authorities of the protection” of vaccination, based on Euro Meat News . The vaccination program has value French duck producers a bit beneath $2 per bird .

In June, the USDA announced it was creating a vaccination plan to point out to nations that import US rooster meat as a solution to gauge whether or not vaccination would disrupt commerce. The replace represented ahead momentum, however some scientific specialists, and a few within the egg trade, have gotten more and more impatient with the USDA’s reluctance to permit egg producers to vaccinate.

The company is, based on them, placing the rooster meat trade’s monetary well-being above the huge impacts the hen flu has had on egg, turkey, and dairy producers. I might add that it’s additionally placing it above American shoppers, animal welfare, and broader public well being issues.

The USDA didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Truly measuring the price of hen flu

Glenn Hickman, a big egg producer in Arizona who needed to cull hundreds of thousands of hens earlier this yr, has been direct about how he feels about the established order. “The explanation we’re not vaccinating chickens on this nation in the present day is due to commerce implications…however I’m previous caring,” Hickman told the agricultural publication Feedstuffs in July. “I’d wish to vaccinate my chickens and defend my flock, and I can't due to the obstacles that the poultry meat trade is placing in entrance of this.”

The argument that we shouldn’t vaccinate egg-laying hens and turkeys in an effort to defend $5 billion or so in rooster meat exports doesn’t sit nicely with Carol Cardona , a professor on the College of Minnesota’s School of Veterinary Medication. Cardona advised me that when individuals say the price of vaccination is simply too excessive, she says “the price of outbreaks is simply too excessive.”

“We’re not essentially measuring” the price of not vaccinating, Cardona mentioned.

These prices, she mentioned, embody:

The virus evolving to contaminate hundreds of new bird and mammal species . The environmental influence of elevating so many poultry birds who're by no means consumed. The burden on human well being and the price of stopping human infections. The psychological well being influence on farmers, veterinarians, and farm workers . Infections reported at greater than 1,000 US dairy farms, leading to sickness for an unknown variety of cows and economic losses for dairy producers . There are additionally, after all, the 182 million birds killed — principally by way of painful warmth stroke — within the US alone, together with the billions in taxpayer {dollars} spent to suppress the virus and compensate egg and dairy producers for his or her losses.

So far as I’m conscious, no economist has put a complete greenback quantity on the hen flu’s annual toll, but it surely’s probably a lot larger than the financial harm it could do to the rooster meat trade. Till policymakers take a extra holistic outlook on the trade’s hen flu disaster, these most susceptible to it — animals, farm employees, and shoppers — will proceed to bear the heavy burden of this lethal virus.

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