This makes no sense to me, but I am a brain injured idiot so there’s that:
Once one chicken tests positive for the bird flu, the entire flock has to be culled (as in killed). Some farms have been wiped out several times over the past few years, and so many places have been affected that repopulation — getting new chickens to get the farms up and running again — is increasingly difficult. Given the scale, there’s not a clear playbook for turning things around.
Eggs may be expensive forever (Alternate link: https://www.businessinsider.com/egg-prices-expensive-avian-bird-flu-changing-tastes-cage-free-2025-1)
Some argue we should kill off herds of cattle too – but the bug exists in over 48 animal species. (Update – a new paper says now in hundreds of species)
The only way this ends is through immunity (natural or vaccines) or the virus mutates to a less virulent form.
Wearing face masks or killing off herds and flocks – forever – is not a workable and sustainable solution. Nor is blaming this on nebulous climate change (read the story – they blame climate change), which has become the cop-out explanation for anything done wrong by experts who don’t know what they are doing.
“”Large eggs on the West Coast right now are $8.86, and that’s because California and the Pacific Northwest mandates cage-free eggs on shelves,”.
