(Photo courtesy of Ohio News Connection/Adobe Stock)

Farah Siddiqi

A Food and Water Watch report claims Ohio egg producers are profiting from the bird flu outbreak.

Ohio, a top egg producer, has lost nearly 15 million birds since December and leads the nation in the number of birds infected with avian flu.

With egg prices now averaging $6 per dozen – compared with $1.79 a dozen in 2021 – Rebecca Wolf, a senior food policy analyst for Food and Water Watch, said her group’s research indicates large, corporate egg producers are using the crisis to inflate prices even further, despite production costs remaining nearly flat.

“Prices rising before the bird flu outbreak,” she said, “and now an astronomical impact with the actual, real impacts of the bird flu – which is a classic case of what we say is price-gouging consumers, so really taking advantage of that market control.”

Ohio’s poultry industry said it’s already grappling with massive losses and is bracing for continued challenges as the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects egg prices could rise another 41% by the end of the year.

As the second-largest egg producer in the nation, Wolf said, Ohio’s highly concentrated poultry industry is particularly vulnerable to disruptions. She explained that the way the industry is structured makes it susceptible to massive losses when outbreaks occur.

“So, if one bird is sick in one of those facilities, which is what we’re seeing,” she said, “then all of those birds, in this case, have been culled for the bird flu.”

Chickens in cramped conditions face higher disease risks, while concentrated manure threatens air and water quality. Industry leaders have said they’re tackling pollution while meeting demand, but Ohio’s first human bird flu case in February has heightened public health concerns.