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• Posted February 27, 2025

USDA Reveals Plan to Lower Egg Prices Amid Bird Flu

With egg prices soaring due to a severe bird flu outbreak, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a $1 billion plan to contain the disease and help poultry farmers recover.

The outbreak has destroyed flocks nationwide, with more than 166 million birds lost since 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The comprehensive strategy detailed by the USDA focuses on biosecurity, helping farmers who lose flocks recover faster and vaccine research.

“To every family struggling to buy eggs: We hear you, we’re fighting for you, and help is on the way,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins wrote in the Wall Street Journal and in a USDA news release Feb. 26.

What’s in the USDA’s plan?

• $500 million for biosecurity: Expanding inspections and improving disease prevention on farms.

• $400 million for farmer compensation: Reimbursing farmers for lost flocks but requiring a biosecurity audit before payouts.

• $100 million for vaccine research: Exploring bird flu vaccines and therapeutics.

• Easing regulations on egg producers: Making it easier for backyard farmers to raise chickens.

• Potential egg imports: Temporarily allowing egg imports to boost supply and lower prices.

But some farmers and experts told CNN the plan doesn’t go far enough. 

The CDC says that contaminated milk can contain high levels of the virus before pasteurization. But the USDA’s plan does not expand milk surveillance nationwide.

Doug Corwin, a Long Island duck farmer who recently had to cull his flock of 99,000 ducks after the virus was found, expressed disappointment that the plan didn’t put more emphasis on bird vaccines.

“I find this proposal very naïve,” he told CNN via text message on Wednesday.

Corwin said while biosecurity and surveillance are always helpful, he views vaccines as the only way to stabilize the situation.

“It is a step in the right direction, but essentially they are doubling down on biosecurity,” he said.

Bird flu vaccines have faced resistance from the poultry industry due to high costs and trade concerns, since many countries refuse to import vaccinated birds.

 Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, supports vaccine use.

“We need tools like vaccines to protect poultry from H5N1 because the virus is lethal to them and the endless, expensive cycle of culling doesn’t seem to be working to stop the virus from infecting flocks,” Nuzzo said.

“Though the vaccine may not prevent flocks from infection, making the virus less lethal to birds may alleviate some of the financial tolls of H5N1,” she added.

Bird flu outbreaks have already cost taxpayers over $1.25 billion in poultry compensation.

Despite these payments, about 20% of infected farms have had repeat outbreaks, leading to the need for stricter biosecurity audits before farmers can receive more federal aid.

“We are seeing probably even a little bit more increase up until Easter,” Rollins told CNN, adding that this was normal "because so many eggs are used around Easter.”

“It’s going to take a little while to get through," he added. "I think the next month or two, but hopefully by summer.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the current bird flu situation.

SOURCES: CNN, media report, Feb. 26, 2025: U.S. Department of Agriculture, news release, Feb. 26, 2025