A recent outbreak of bird flu has led to a significant increase in egg prices, but a chicken farmer is claiming that manufacturers are taking advantage of consumers by using the bird flu as an excuse to raise prices. @fatheracab, a content creator and chicken farmer with over 385,700 views on TikTok, shared his concerns about the situation.
According to @fatheracab, the high number of birds dying from bird flu is not due to the disease itself, but rather neglect in facilities. “They don’t give them vitamins, oregano supplements, all the supplements they are supposed to get in these major facilities,” he claims. He argues that many yearly chicken deaths in facilities are caused by neglect, and this information gets co-opted as bird flu deaths.
The USDA reports that egg layer flocks suffered a depopulation of birds due to outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in December 2024 and the first six weeks of 2025. However, @fatheracab believes that the price increase is not justified by the number of bird flu deaths.
He points out that people consume over 9 billion chickens a year in meat alone, and considering the United States had over 382 million egg-laying hens in 2023, the number of bird flu deaths is relatively small. “It doesn’t make sense,” @fatheracab vents. He claims that large egg facilities are taking advantage of consumers by using bird flu deaths as an excuse to unnecessarily increase their prices.
Many viewers have commented on the video, sharing their own experiences and agreeing with @fatheracab’s assessment. Some have even suggested raising their own chickens as a way to avoid high-priced eggs.
The USDA has identified marketplace losses as the main factor affecting egg prices, but @fatheracab believes that price gouging is at play. The government is considering bird flu vaccination for poultry, and some consumers are looking for ways to protect themselves from the high prices of egg products.
Source: https://www.dailydot.com/news/real-reason-eggs-expensive