By Jack Phillips Contributing Writer   The U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week that egg prices could spike by more than 40% this year amid bird flu outbreaks and the mass culling of layer hens across the United States.  The main reason egg prices have increased — hitting an all -time average high of $4.95 per dozen last month — is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the spread of the virus when cases are detected.  Most were egg-laying hens. Since the start of the year, more than 30 million egg-laying hens have been culled.  According to the USDA’s February 2025 Food Price Outlook, published on Tuesday, retail egg prices surged by 13.8% in January 2025 after rising by 8.4% in December 2024. Prices are expected to remain volatile on a month-by-month basis, in part because 18.8 million commercial egg layers were impacted by avian influenza outbreaks in January, the highest monthly total since the outbreak began in 2022, the USDA said.  Egg prices are now projected to rise by about 41% in 2025, but the increase could range from 15% to 75%, the USDA said. Last month, the USDA predicted a 20% increase in 2025.  Prices have more than doubled since before the outbreak began, costing consumers at least $1.4 billion in 2024, according to an estimate by agricultural economists at the University of Arkansas. Restaurants such as Denny’s and Waffle House have started adding surcharges to egg dishes.  Egg prices also normally increase every spring heading into Easter when demand is high.  The secretary of the USDA, Brooke Rollins, said on Wednesday that the department will spend $1 billion to deal with the bird flu crisis and soaring egg prices. The department will use the Commodity Credit Corp. to provide funding to deal with the virus, and it will include $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million for relief to farms, and $100 million for vaccine research, the agency said.  “American farmers need relief, and American consumers need affordable food. To every family struggling to buy eggs: We hear you, we’re fighting for you, and help is on the way,” Rollins said in a Wednesday statement.  Rollins provided more details of the strategy in a Wall Street Journal opinion article published on Wednesday.  “We also want to make it easier for families to raise backyard chickens,” she wrote.  Trump administration officials have suggested that vaccines might help reduce the number of birds that have to be slaughtered when there is an outbreak. No vaccines have been fully approved for widespread use in poultry, and the industry has said the current prototypes aren’t practical because they require individual shots for each bird.  Lawmakers from the Democratic Party have criticized the administration over the spike in egg prices, with a group of House Democrats urging the administration earlier this month to come up with a plan.  “Eggs are a basic necessity for families in our districts, and the financial burden caused by these surging prices must be resolved,” the 28 House Democrats, led by Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-California, wrote in a Feb. 13 letter to Trump.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that while H5N1 avian influenza is widespread in wild birds around the world, the current public health risk to people remains low, according to a recent update.  So far, 70 people have been sickened with the virus in the United States since the outbreak started in 2022, with one person dying.  That individual, who was not identified, was over the age of 65 and was “reported to have underlying medical conditions,” the Louisiana Department of Health said in a statement, adding that the individual contracted H5N1 after being exposed to wild birds and a “non-commercial backyard flock.”  There is no known person-to-person spread at this time, the CDC said.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.  The post USDA warns egg prices could rise by 41% in 2025  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less