Bird flu has wiped out more than 30 million chickens so far this year
The continued outbreak of bird flu has resulted in the culling of more than 30 million poultry birds across nine states this year. That's about 10 million more than the last quarter of 2024.
The loss of egg-laying hens resulted in a national egg shortage, with prices sky high over the first months of the Trump administration. Since then, the cost of a carton of eggs has fallen thanks to decreased demand and falling infections. Last week, the average wholesale price of eggs was $3.13, which is down about $5 from earlier this year.
'You can have all the eggs. You watch, we have too many eggs. In fact, if anything, the prices are getting too low,' President Donald Trump said last week.
But, while the Department of Agriculture, which has led the effort to bring down prices, said in its latest Egg Markets Overview that price levels to the consumer have 'eased considerably,' levels 'remain at levels not yet conducive to more than normal purchases needs.'
However, bird flu isn't retreating. Ohio just reported its first outbreak since early March.
This year, the Department of Agriculture has confirmed 41 outbreaks in egg-laying flocks across Arizona, California, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington.
Of the 30.6 million birds affected since January, 19.6 million were in caged systems and 11 million were cage free.
Since January 2022, 168,621,877 poultry birds have been affected.
The majority of the outbreaks this year have been in Ohio, which reported its first human case of bird flu in February and the first known illness involving the D1.3 strain. There have been 13.5 million birds lost in Ohio flocks.
Rapid viral spread there has forced Republican Governor Mike DeWine to tell the Trump administration to hasten its bird-flu response.
'One of the things that is clear is that the federal government is really going to have to accelerate the research that is being done in regard to bird flu,' he said last month.
Last month, the Department of Agriculture announced a plan costing $1 billion to address bird flu, including $400 million to help speed the process for farmers to clean and repopulate their farms, which usually takes about six months. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that relief would happen by the summer.
That was before news that people assigned to respond to bird flu had been cut in recent Department of Health and Human Services layoffs, and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced a strategy to let the virus run wild. Experts said that could only lead to it mutating and put farm workers at greater risk.
For now, health authorities assert Americans should not worry. For one thing, there has still been no evidence of human-to-human transmission of bird flu.
'The current risk of bird flu for the general public is low. However, people with close and prolonged, unprotected contact with infected birds and other animals are at greater risk of infection,' the Ohio Department of Health said.
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Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Obama's doctor makes candid confession about Biden's mental decline while in office
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Despite multiple detailed physicals during Biden's time in office, Kuhlman pointed out that none included neurocognitive assessments like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) - a basic test famously taken and 'aced' by President Trump. 'I have no doubt that President Trump aced it,' Kuhlman remarked. Yet Biden's evaluations, spanning five to six single-spaced pages and referencing 10 to 20 specialists, conspicuously omitted any serious cognitive screening. Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor who also treated Biden during his vice presidency never subjected him to a formal cognitive battery or even the routine MoCA test. Such an omission has become more glaring given the president's visible struggles, culminating in his disastrous debate performance in June 2024 that effectively ended his reelection bid. 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The Independent
13 hours ago
- The Independent
Obama's doctor says Biden's physician should have given him cognitive tests
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NBC News
a day ago
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Trump's ban stalls lifesaving treatment for Haitian children who need to travel for surgery
Leaders of an aid organization that has sent more than 100 Haitian children with serious cardiac conditions to the U.S. for heart surgery said President Donald Trump's ban on travelers from 19 countries will stall or cancel lifesaving procedures for at least a dozen children or young adults. The ban, which goes into effect Monday, has led to widespread uncertainty for many and drawn condemnation from international leaders. The proclamation issued Tuesday offered exceptions for those who are lawful permanent U.S. residents and those traveling to the U.S. for the World Cup and the Olympics, among other examples. No such mention was made for cases of medical necessity, such as those who are seeking treatment in the U.S. through the International Cardiac Alliance. The International Cardiac Alliance 's total waitlist for Haitians, ranging from infants to young adults, totals at least 316 people who need heart surgery, said Executive Director Owen Robinson. 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But for many Haitians, international travel requires multiple levels of logistical wrangling, Robinson said. Some patients and their parents who can secure surgeries in other countries must apply for a visa to the U.S., travel here, and then head to their eventual destination. The United States' travel ban now throws a wrench in that process. Fabienne Rene, 16, was diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease in February. Because of her condition, Fabienne, who lives in Port-au-Prince, cannot even attend school since she experiences shortness of breath, said her father, Fignole Rene. The 'bad news' he received about the travel ban causing the postponement or potential cancellation of his daughter's travel through the U.S. to the Dominican Republic is 'really disturbing and breaking my heart,' he said. 'I was not waiting to hear something like that,' Rene, 53, said in Creole through a translator. 'We know for sure that there is nowhere in Haiti we can have this possibility. The only option that we have was just waiting to have an open door from the Cardiac Alliance.' He also said the news will be troubling for his family to hear and that they don't know 'where they will find another open door that can give her a chance.' Robinson said the U.S. Embassy in Haiti recently informed him that it most likely wouldn't be able to issue any visas due to the travel ban. In the past, the embassy has repeatedly issued visas for Haitian children to travel to the U.S. for care. The office of Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., has offered to reach out to the State Department to see if the children can receive exceptions, he added. Dr. John Clark, a pediatric cardiologist at Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio who has worked with the ICA, said many children in impoverished countries like Haiti suffer from Fabienne's condition because they are not seen by a doctor and treated for the common illness strep throat. 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Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, and more than half of Haitians live below the poverty line. The country is also plagued with government corruption, gang violence and food insecurity, as well as vulnerability to natural disasters, including a devastating 2010 earthquake that killed at least 220,000 people. Lack of adequate health care also fuels diseases like cholera, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. 'I hope things can calm down one day enough that we can get back there [to Haiti],' Clark said. 'But right now, there's no way for us to go back down.' Andrice Boncoeur of Port-au-Prince received free open-heart surgery at CEDIMAT Cardiovascular Center in the Dominican Republic to repair a valve when he was 9 years old. That procedure, however, was only meant to be a temporary solution. Now, plans for Andrice, 16, to travel through the U.S. for more permanent surgery have been disrupted. On Thursday, Andrice's father, Andre Boncoeur, said he had not yet told his son about the travel ban preventing him from passing through the U.S. Boncoeur said he knows 'something can change at any time.' Still, children like Andrice do not have much time to wait. In April, Andrice was once again hospitalized for three days at Haiti's Centre Hospitalier Eben-Ezer for heart failure. Boncoeur said his family has spent 'everything that we had' and that their funds are 'almost gone.' He said he hopes the situation will change so that his son, who aspires to become a pastor, 'can have a chance to live his life as a normal kid.' Clark, Robinson and the patient's parents all agree it comes down to the Trump administration's willingness to accommodate the sick children. 'These children are somebody's child and somebody's grandchild and they don't have access to lifesaving care,' Clark said. 'Is there any room for compassion?'
