A new case of bird flu emerges in LA as egg prices rise

Health officials confirmed the first case of a person with bird flu in Los Angeles County on Monday.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a news release that the person with bird flu was exposed to infected livestock at a construction site. The sick person had mild symptoms and was treated with antiviral medications, county health officials said.

According to the California Department of Public Health, most recently updated on Monday, there have been 37 confirmed human cases of bird flu in California. That’s three confirmed cases in less than a week.

The risk of contracting bird flu remains low for the population, although people in certain occupations, including agricultural workers, are at higher risk of contracting it.

This news follows Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent declaration of a state of emergency to combat bird flu in California, a disease that has ravaged the state’s dairy and poultry farms for months. That includes 650 infected dairies since bird flu was first discovered in California dairies earlier this year, the California Department of Food and Agriculture said Dec. 19.

Avian influenza continues to be confirmed in poultry flocks across the state, including commercial flocks in Merced, Monterey and Tulare counties, the state Food and Agriculture Department announced during December. According to the US Department of Agriculture, more than 125 million birds have been affected by this bird flu outbreak in the US as of 2022. “Affected birds” means the number of birds on confirmed infected properties, the USDA said.

Avian flu has affected Americans in other ways, too. It affects egg prices. The average cost of a dozen large Grade A eggs was $3.65 in November, up 28 cents from October and more than a dollar earlier in the year, USA TODAY reported.

How does bird flu affect egg prices?

The USDA egg market summary report Friday said 36.8 million egg-laying birds were lost to bird flu outbreaks and plant fires in a dozen states, including California, this year. Specifically, California has lost more than 7 million egg-laying birds to bird flu and fires since January. The only state with more losses was Iowa.

More than a third of the total losses in California and the other 11 states have occurred since November, and that has led to sharp price increases as we “approach peak annual demand for shell eggs.”

“Demand for shell eggs increased during the holiday week as consumers finalize their holiday preparations,” the USDA report said, and concerns about “short” supplies due to bird flu outbreaks in egg-laying flocks “drive wholesale prices near Record values.”

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